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Biaxial failure properties of planar living tissue equivalents
Author(s) -
Billiar K. L.,
Throm A. M.,
Frey M. T.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.30282
Subject(s) - ultimate tensile strength , materials science , clamping , composite material , biomedical engineering , fibrin , computer science , medicine , immunology , computer vision
Abstract Quantification of the mechanical properties of living tissue equivalents (LTEs) is essential for assessing their ultimate functionality as tissue substitutes, yet their delicate nature makes failure testing problematic. For this study, we evaluated the validity of using an inflation device for quantifying the biaxial tensile failure properties of extremely delicate fibroblast‐populated collagen gels (CGs) and fibrin gels (FGs). Small samples were circularly clamped and then inflated until rupture. Each sample assumed an approximately spherical shape and burst at its center indicating effective clamping. After two weeks in culture, all LTEs tested were fragile, but the FGs were significantly stronger and more extensible than the CGs (ultimate tensile strength 6.0 kPa ± 2.0 kPa vs. 2.8 kPa ± 0.7 kPa; failure strain 3.5 ± 0.9 vs. 0.26 ± 0.05, n = 4). After an additional 11 days of culture, the strength of the FGs increased significantly (26.5 kPa ± 12.7 kPa), and the extensibility decreased (1.9 ± 0.8, n = 3). This study demonstrates that subtle differences in the properties of LTEs can be measured using inflation methods with minimal sample handling and without having to grow the tissues into anchors or cut the specimens. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 73A: 182–191, 2005