Studying the effects of mechanical loads on living cells provides valuable information about their activity, vitality and intercellular communication. Mechanical stimuli have often a significant impact on cell migration, tissue remodeling and healing and other phenomena. This effects in micro scale affect also tissue structure, its mechanical characteristics and functionality. Special methods are needed to study deformation and biological responses of such small objects as cells. Moreover, in order to keep the cells alive during such tests, it is necessary to ensure appropriate environmental conditions. The methods of loading and examination cells can be categorized into several groups depending on the physical effects used in experiment. This paper provides a systematic review of the methods used in such studies and examples of mathematical modeling the mechanical response of cells to mechanical loads. Such models enable computational simulation of changes in cells and tissues excited by mechanical stress.

研究机械负荷对活细胞的影响提供了有关其活动、活力和细胞间通讯的宝贵信息。机械刺激往往对细胞迁移、组织重塑和愈合等现象产生重大影响。这种微观尺度的影响也影响组织结构、其机械特性和功能。需要特殊的方法来研究细胞等小物体的变形和生物反应。此外，为了在此类测试期间保持细胞存活，有必要确保适当的环境条件。根据实验中使用的物理效应，加载和检查细胞的方法可以分为几组。本文对此类研究中使用的方法和细胞对机械载荷的机械响应的数学建模示例进行了系统评价。这样的模型能够计算模拟受机械应力激发的细胞和组织的变化。