Generating an inhomogeneous stress field as a technique to study cell mechanoresponse

Over the last decade, it has been shown that cells can sense and respond to mechanical perturbations in their underlying substrate (or extra-cellular matrix, ECM). However, the effect of an inhomogeneous stress on cell response has been scarcely studied, mainly due to technical difficulty to create a well-controlled stress (or strain) state in the ECM, even though stress gradients are of critical importance in-and likely induce-wound healing, for example, through local cell growth and tissue formation. Here, we present a technique which can be easily used to study the response behavior of cells to a well-defined inhomogeneous stress field.