Abstract

Regenerative medicine aims to engineer materials to replace or restore damaged or diseased organs. The mechanical properties of such materials should mimic the human tissues they are aiming to replace; to provide the required anatomical shape, the materials must be able to sustain the mechanical forces they will experience when implanted at the defect site. Although the mechanical properties of tissue-engineered scaffolds are of great importance, many human tissues that undergo restoration with engineered materials have not been fully biomechanically characterized. Several compressive and tensile protocols are reported for evaluating materials, but with large variability it is difficult to compare results between studies. Further complicating the studies is the often destructive nature of mechanical testing. Whilst an understanding of tissue failure is important, it is also important to have knowledge of the elastic and viscoelastic properties under more physiological loading conditions.This report aims to provide a minimally destructive protocol to evaluate the compressive and tensile properties of human soft tissues. As examples of this technique, the tensile testing of skin and the compressive testing of cartilage are described. These protocols can also be directly applied to synthetic materials to ensure that the mechanical properties are similar to the native tissue. Protocols to assess the mechanical properties of human native tissue will allow a benchmark by which to create suitable tissue-engineered substitutes.

Highlights

  • Patients are increasingly waiting for various organ transplantations to treat failing or injured organs

  • Regenerative medicine aims to meet this clinical need by engineering materials to act as tissue substitutes, including soft tissues, such as cartilage and skin

  • We aim to demonstrate an indentation and tensile protocol that provides direct, non-destructive comparison of human soft tissues and tissue-engineered constructs

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Summary

Introduction

Patients are increasingly waiting for various organ transplantations to treat failing or injured organs. With the shortage of suitable donor organs, regenerative medicine is aiming to create alternative solutions for patients with end-stage organ failure. Regenerative medicine aims to meet this clinical need by engineering materials to act as tissue substitutes, including soft tissues, such as cartilage and skin. The material will need to provide anatomical shape to the tissue defect and the mechanical properties of the material are vital[1]. A material replacing auricular cartilage should have the appropriate mechanical properties to prevent compression by the overlying skin[2]. A material to replace nasal cartilage will need to have adequate mechanical properties to prevent collapsing during breathing[3]. Despite the importance of mechanical properties when manufacturing materials for implantation, little evidence has focused on characterizing the mechanical properties of different human tissues

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