Engineering Collagen Nanostructure to Enable Stiff & Tough Cartilage Biomaterials

Collagen is the main component of extracellular matrices (ECM) throughout the body, and the main structural component of cartilage tissue. As such, collagen has been widely investigated as a biomaterial for tissue engineering. However, the process of extracting collagen and processing it to form functional materials has failed to recapitulate the mechanical and structural properties of native tissue.To best understand the potential uses for collagen biomaterials for cartilage tissue engineering, the characteristics of cartilage throughout the body and the clinical standard for cartilage repair were evaluated (Chapter 1) Then, to address the variety of species and tissue sources, and processing methods on the performance of collagen biomaterials, the impact on composition and telopeptides on the mechanics and nanostructure of collagen were investigated (Chapter 2). In the first of two applications of collagen as a biomaterial for cartilage tissue engineering in this work, collagen was then investigated as part of a biohybrid composite system where the addition of collagen vastly improved both the mechanical performance and cytocompatability of the material (Chapter 3). Finally, collagen was functinalized with alginate to enable metal-ion complexation in order to improve the extensibility and toughness of the material, with the effect of seeding with auricular chondrocytes on fracture toughness of the material tracked with a custom analytical framework (Chapter 4)

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D., Biomedical Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biomedical Engineering

Grantor

Cornell University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Slyker, Leigh

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Vacanti, Nathaniel
• Putnam, David

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7298/7gsf-1422

Dc Identifier Other

ProQuest Submission ID: 14157
ProQuest Publication ID: 30992602

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/116002