Mechanical stretch is widely experienced by cells of different tissues in the human body and plays critical roles in regulating their behaviors. Numerous studies have been devoted to investigating the responses of cells to mechanical stretch, providing us with fruitful findings. However, these findings have been mostly observed from two-dimensional studies and increasing evidence suggests that cells in three dimensions may behave more closely to their in vivo behaviors. While significant efforts and progresses have been made in the engineering of biomaterials and approaches for mechanical stretching of cells in three dimensions, much work remains to be done. Here, we briefly review the state-of-the-art researches in this area, with focus on discussing biomaterial considerations and stretching approaches. We envision that with the development of advanced biomaterials, actuators and microengineering technologies, more versatile and predictive three-dimensional cell stretching models would be available soon for extensive applications in such fields as mechanobiology, tissue engineering, and drug screening.

中文翻译：

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工程生物材料和三维细胞机械拉伸方法

人体内不同组织的细胞广泛经历机械拉伸，并在调节其行为方面发挥关键作用。许多研究致力于研究细胞对机械拉伸的反应，为我们提供了富有成效的发现。然而，这些发现主要是从二维研究中观察到的，越来越多的证据表明，三维细胞的行为可能更接近于它们的体内行为。虽然在生物材料工程和细胞三维机械拉伸方法方面已经取得了重大的努力和进展，但仍有许多工作要做。在这里，我们简要回顾了该领域的最新研究，重点讨论生物材料的考虑因素和拉伸方法。