Teaching strategies for resolving gastrointestinal function from the perspective of cell biomechanics

Traditional gastrointestinal function teaching focuses on biochemical and physiological regulation, but fails to explore the effects of mechanical forces on gastrointestinal cell behavior and function, resulting in students’ one-sided understanding of gastrointestinal function. This paper proposes a new teaching strategy by combining cell biomechanics with teaching to help students master the gastrointestinal function mechanism more comprehensively. First, the membrane elasticity of gastrointestinal smooth muscle cells is measured. The elastic modulus is calculated by combining the Hertz model and the applied force is controlled to avoid cell membrane damage. Elasticity change data is obtained. Then, a flexible substrate is used to apply stretching and low frequency to simulate the mechanical force of cells during peristalsis and monitor the fluctuation of calcium ion concentration. Then, the distribution of intercellular cadherin is analyzed, and mechanical force is used to accelerate the permeability of gap junctions and the expression of Connexin43 to promote signal transmission. Finally, a teaching experiment based on cell biomechanics is designed, covering cell culture, mechanical stimulation, quantitative analysis and molecular biology verification, to help students understand how mechanical forces affect gastrointestinal cell behavior and function. The results show that before and after the application of the cell biomechanics teaching strategy, the students’ test scores increase by 16%, and the experimental results are good. Applying biomechanical factors into teaching by combining teaching strategies with cell biomechanics has a positive effect on medical education.