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Contribution of Fiber Undulation to Mechanics of Three‐Dimensional Collagen‐I Gel
Author(s) -
Lin Shengmao,
Gu Linxia
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.201650020
Subject(s) - stiffening , extracellular matrix , materials science , collagen fiber , strain (injury) , scaffold , composite material , tissue engineering , matrix (chemical analysis) , fiber , biomedical engineering , chemistry , anatomy , engineering , medicine , biochemistry
Summary The collagen‐I gel is extensively used as a scaffold material in tissue engineering due to its ability to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM). In this study, the mechanics of collagen‐I gel is investigated using a numerical model of three‐dimensional collagen network. The resulted mechanical behavior was validated against the published experimental data. Results illustrated that fiber alignment was dominated in the low strain region, and its transition to stretching dominated phenomena at higher strain led to the strain stiffening of collagen gel. The collagen undulation at the microscopic level was found to delay the initiation of strain stiffening.