Cytostretcher Chambers come in flat or nanopatterned topographies. Which one should I use for my application?

Cytostretcher Chambers come in: (1) unpatterned "flat" and (2) NanoSurface topography. Both formats have a polymer substrate that is softer than conventional glass or plastic cultureware. As a result, the softer substrates are more representative of the mechanical properties of the tissue microenvironment. The NanoSurface substrate possesses submicron grooves with a feature size that is comparable to the collagen microenvironment in the body. As a result, the pattern is also optimized to be in the size of the focal adhesion of cells and facilitate the alignment of adherent cells. Our customers usually use flat substrates either for their improved mechanical properties (softer substrate) or as a control sample for NanoSurface topography to show the differences in the functionality of aligned and non-aligned tissue.