Effect of loading rates on cellular force measurements by polymer micropillar based transducers

Polymeric deformable sensor arrays have been employed to measure cellular forces and offered insights into the study of cellular mechanics. Previous studies have been focused on using transducers in static domain and assumed elastic beam theory as the force conversion model. Neglecting the inherent viscoelastic behavior of polydimethylsiloxane and low aspect ratios of the sensor arrays compromised the accuracy of these devices. In this work, a more in-depth viscoelastic Timoshenko beam model was developed incorporating dynamic cellular forces. We studied chemically stimulated contractions of cardiac myocytes and found that the loading rate has a considerable influence on the sensitivity of the sensor arrays.