Biomechanical properties of engineered collagen scaffolds

An experiment was performed to determine the effect of crosslinking on the stiffness of collagen scaffolds. Engineered non-crosslinked and dehydrothermally crosslinked chondroitin-6-sulfate collagen scaffolds were hydrated and loaded in tension, and their mechanical properties were compared. It was found that non-crosslinked scaffolds experience an average increase in weight after hydration of 10,353%, compared to 7,265% for crosslinked scaffolds. Hyperelastic material parameters were determined by the Arruda-Boyce eight-chain model, which was fit to the experimental data. This model predicted an average number of rigid links per collagen fiber of 1.3 and 1.21 for crosslinked and non-crosslinked scaffolds, respectively. Additionally, the collagen fiber densities were found to be 2.92 x 1017 for crosslinked networks and 1.68 x 1017 for non-crosslinked networks. These results can be applied to the changes that take place in the cervix at the onset of delivery. It is hypothesized that the crosslinking between collagen fibers in the cervix breaks down during preparation for delivery, allowing more fluid to enter the extracellular matrix and weaken the tissue. By performing tension tests on cervix tissue in vivo, one can produce a theoretical fit to predict relevant collagen network parameters, which can be compared with those of non-pregnant cervical tissue to indicate the early onset of cervical ripening.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Bonebreak, Christina M. (Christina Michelle)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Simona Socrate.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32876

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32876