Transducing forces through a viscoelastic gel

[vbentiv]

Hi,

I'm working with Matrigel, a biological hydrogel so to say, and would like to exert forces on something inside the gel. I was wondering, if in general, viscoelastic gels can transduce forces.

Consider the following setup:
Matrigel in small wells (1 or 2 mm in diameter), a force is exerted on this wells (causing them to deform), can something inside the well "feel" this force?

Thanks!

 

[Doug Huffman]

Necessarily inside the well? On exterior, optical deformation could be observed, pressure varying polarization of the plastic. Individual strain gauges would be expensive on a 96-well plate. Optically observe the variation in level if the force displaces the gel against gravity.

 

[vbentiv]

Necessarily inside the well? On exterior, optical deformation could be observed, pressure varying polarization of the plastic. Individual strain gauges would be expensive on a 96-well plate. Optically observe the variation in level if the force displaces the gel against gravity.

I was thinking of making wells in a PDMS substrate for example, which would be more easy to deform than a well plate. And it's cells inside the matrigel (they don't grow anywhere else) that I'd like to manipulate.