Biofidelic gallbladder tissue surrogates

Abstract

ABSTRACT The gallbladder tissue is one important functional tissue of the human abdomen, but the biomechanics of the gallbladder tissue has not been much explored due to biosafety and ethical concerns with cadaveric sample testing. This study aimed to develop tissue surrogates by conducting an experimental study to mimic the mechanical properties of human gallbladder tissue. To meet the objectives, 15 candidate test coupons were fabricated with varying compositions and uniaxially tested at varying strain rates to configure the stress versus strain responses. The results of the tested coupons were compared with the literature on human cadaveric gallbladder tissue to determine the test coupons (i.e. surrogates) mimicking the mechanical properties. The hyperelastic curve fit model (Mooney–Rivlin) was used to quantify the non-linear behaviour of the developed gallbladder tissue surrogates. The biofidelic gallbladder surrogates with realistic mechanical properties have been developed for the first time in the literature. Such surrogates would be helpful to better understand injury biomechanics, trauma research, and making different medical models for educational purposes.