Neural cell death following mechanical stretch injury

It is important to understand the correlation of cellular injury with imposed levels of strain and strain rates. Threshold injury levels and the degree of injury to the culture as a function of strain and strain rate are determined. Using two DNA stains, one cell permeable and one cell impermeable, cellular injury is determined based on the number of cells with compromised membranes following stretch injury. Neural cells follow a necrotic pathway to cell death following mechanical injury. Two neural cell lines have been stably transfected for expression of YFP fused BclXL and BAX apoptotic proteins. Following, mechanical stretch injury, translocation of these cellular proteins is accessed to determine if the BclXL and BAX pathways are triggered in stretch injury.