A Three Layered Electrospun Matrix to Mimic Native Arterial Architecture Using Polycaprolactone, Elastin, and Collagen: A Preliminary Study

Author(s):  
Michael J. McClure ◽  
Scott A. Sell ◽  
David G. Simpson ◽  
Beat H. Walpoth ◽  
Gary L. Bowlin

The architecture of the vascular wall is highly intricate and requires unique biomechanical properties in order to function properly. Native artery is composed of a mix of collagens, elastin, endothelial cells (ECs), smooth muscle cells (SMC), fibroblasts, and proteoglycans arranged into three distinct layers: the intima, media, and adventitia. Throughout artery, collagen and elastin play an important role, providing a mechanical backbone, preventing vessel rupture, and promoting recovery while undergoing pulsatile deformations [1]. The low-strain mechanical response of artery to blood flow is dominated by the elastic behavior, of elastin, which prevents pulsatile energy from being dissipated as heat [2]. A higher amount of energy loss indicates a decrease in recoverability, which could lead to eventual disruption of blood flow. An effective way to quantify recoverability is through hysteresis and compliance measurement. The hypothesis of this study was that the fabrication of a multi-layered electrospun tissue engineering scaffold composed of polycaprolactone (PCL), elastin (ELAS), and collagen (COL) would demonstrate dynamic mechanical properties indicative of a highly elastic material, similar to the three distinct layers of native arterial tissue, while remaining conducive to tissue regeneration. PCL was chosen, in this case, to provide mechanical integrity and elasticity, while elastin and collagen would provide further elasticity and bioactivity [3,4].

Author(s):  
Michael J. McClure ◽  
Scott A. Sell ◽  
Gary L. Bowlin

The architecture of the vascular wall is highly intricate and requires unique biomechanical properties in order to function properly. Native artery is composed of a mix of collagens, elastin, endothelial cells (ECs), smooth muscle cells (SMC), fibroblasts, and proteoglycans arranged into three distinct layers: the intima, media, and adventitia. Throughout artery, collagen and elastin play an important role, providing a mechanical backbone, preventing vessel rupture, and promoting recovery while undergoing pulsatile deformations [1]. The low-strain mechanical response of artery to blood flow is dominated by the elastic behavior, of elastin, which prevents pulsatile energy from being dissipated as heat [2]. A higher amount of energy loss indicates a decrease in recoverability, which could lead to eventual disruption of blood flow. An effective way to quantify recoverability is through hysteresis and compliance measurement. The hypothesis of this study was that the fabrication of a multi-layered electrospun tissue engineering scaffold composed of polycaprolactone (PCL), elastin, and collagen would demonstrate dynamic mechanical properties indicative of a highly elastic material, similar to the three distinct layers of native arterial tissue, while remaining conducive to tissue regeneration. PCL was chosen, in this case, to provide mechanical integrity and elasticity, while elastin and collagen would provide further elasticity and bioactivity [3,4].


Author(s):  
Michael J. McClure ◽  
Scott A. Sell ◽  
David G. Simpson ◽  
Beat H. Walpoth ◽  
Gary L. Bowlin

The architecture of the vascular wall is highly intricate and requires unique biomechanical properties in order to function properly. Native artery is composed of a mix of collagen, elastin, endothelial cells (ECs), smooth muscle cells (SMC), fibroblasts, and proteoglycans arranged into three distinct layers: the intima, media, and adventitia. Throughout artery, collagen and elastin play an important role, providing a mechanical backbone, preventing vessel rupture, and promoting recovery while undergoing pulsatile deformations [1]. The low-strain mechanical response of artery to blood flow is dominated by the elastic behavior of elastin which prevents pulsatile energy from being dissipated as heat [2]. Previous work has shown the ability to fabricate multi-layered electrospun scaffolds composed of polycaprolactone (PCL), elastin (ELAS), and collagen (COL), and their associated mechanical advantages. PCL was chosen, in this case, to provide mechanical integrity and elasticity, while elastin and collagen would provide further elasticity and bioactivity [3,4]. However, when the grafts were implanted in the descending aorta of a rat, cellular results were not as desirable as predicted. Therefore, further graft optimization was required. The hypothesis of this study was that blended polymers and biopolymers would be conducive for cellular attachment through specific integrin binding sites. To test this hypothesis, human umbilical artery smooth muscle cells (hUASMC) were seeded on electrospun PCL, COL, and ELAS blends for evaluation in a cell adhesion inhibition experiment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Weber ◽  
Markus Alexander Rothschild ◽  
Anja Niehoff

AbstractCompared to articular cartilage, the biomechanical properties of costal cartilage have not yet been extensively explored. The research presented addresses this problem by studying for the first time the anisotropic elastic behavior of human costal cartilage. Samples were taken from 12 male and female cadavers and unconfined compression and indentation tests were performed in mediolateral and dorsoventral direction to determine Young’s Moduli EC for compression and Ei5%, Ei10% and Eimax at 5%, 10% and maximum strain for indentation. Furthermore, the crack direction of the unconfined compression samples was determined and histological samples of the cartilage tissue were examined with the picrosirius-polarization staining method. The tests revealed mean Young’s Moduli of EC = 32.9 ± 17.9 MPa (N = 10), Ei5% = 11.1 ± 5.6 MPa (N = 12), Ei10% = 13.3 ± 6.3 MPa (N = 12) and Eimax = 14.6 ± 6.6 MPa (N = 12). We found that the Young’s Moduli in the indentation test are clearly anisotropic with significant higher results in the mediolateral direction (all P = 0.002). In addition, a dependence of the crack direction of the compressed specimens on the load orientation was observed. Those findings were supported by the orientation of the structure of the collagen fibers determined in the histological examination. Also, a significant age-related elastic behavior of human costal cartilage could be shown with the unconfined compression test (P = 0.009) and the indentation test (P = 0.004), but no sex effect could be detected. Those results are helpful in the field of autologous grafts for rhinoplastic surgery and for the refinement of material parameters in Finite Element models e.g., for accident analyses with traumatic impact on the thorax.


Author(s):  
Aref Ghaderi ◽  
Vahid Morovati ◽  
Pouyan Nasiri ◽  
Roozbeh Dargazany

Abstract Material parameters related to deterministic models can have different values due to variation of experiments outcome. From a mathematical point of view, probabilistic modeling can improve this problem. It means that material parameters of constitutive models can be characterized as random variables with a probability distribution. To this end, we propose a constitutive models of rubber-like materials based on uncertainty quantification (UQ) approach. UQ reduces uncertainties in both computational and real-world applications. Constitutive models in elastomers play a crucial role in both science and industry due to their unique hyper-elastic behavior under different loading conditions (uni-axial extension, biaxial, or pure shear). Here our goal is to model the uncertainty in constitutive models of elastomers, and accordingly, identify sensitive parameters that we highly contribute to model uncertainty and error. Modern UQ models can be implemented to use the physics of the problem compared to black-box machine learning approaches that uses data only. In this research, we propagate uncertainty through the model, characterize sensitivity of material behavior to show the importance of each parameter for uncertainty reduction. To this end, we utilized Bayesian rules to develop a model considering uncertainty in the mechanical response of elastomers. As an important assumption, we believe that our measurements are around the model prediction, but it is contaminated by Gaussian noise. We can make the noise by maximizing the posterior. The uni-axial extension experimental data set is used to calibrate the model and propagate uncertainty in this research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Cavallaro ◽  
Giuseppe Lazzara ◽  
Lorenzo Lisuzzo ◽  
Stefana Milioto ◽  
Filippo Parisi

We investigated the efficacy of several nanoclays (halloysite, sepiolite and laponite) as nanofillers for Mater-Bi, which is a commercial bioplastic extensively used within food packaging applications. The preparation of Mater-Bi/nanoclay nanocomposite films was easily achieved by means of the solvent casting method from dichloroethane. The prepared bio-nanocomposites were characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) in order to explore the effect of the addition of the nanoclays on the mechanical behavior of the Mater-Bi-based films. Tensile tests found that filling Mater-Bi with halloysite induced the most significant improvement of the mechanical performances under traction force, while DMA measurements under the oscillatory regime showed that the polymer glass transition was not affected by the addition of the nanoclay. The tensile properties of the Mater-Bi/halloysite nanotube (HNT) films were competitive compared to those of traditional petroleum plastics in terms of the elastic modulus and stress at the breaking point. Both the mechanical response to the temperature and the tensile properties make the bio-nanocomposites appropriate for food packaging and smart coating purposes. Here, we report a preliminary study of the development of sustainable hybrid materials that could be employed in numerous industrial and technological applications within materials science and pharmaceutics.


Polymers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Osicka ◽  
Miroslav Mrlik ◽  
Marketa Ilcikova ◽  
Barbora Hanulikova ◽  
Pavel Urbanek ◽  
...  

This study is focused on the controllable reduction of the graphene oxide (GO) during the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization technique of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The successful modification was confirmed using TGA-FTIR analysis and TEM microscopy observation of the polymer shell. The simultaneous reduction of the GO particles was confirmed indirectly via TGA and directly via Raman spectroscopy and electrical conductivity investigations. Enhanced compatibility of the GO-PGMA particles with a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomeric matrix was proven using contact angle measurements. Prepared composites were further investigated through the dielectric spectroscopy to provide information about the polymer chain mobility through the activation energy. Dynamic mechanical properties investigation showed an excellent mechanical response on the dynamic stimulation at a broad temperature range. Thermal conductivity evaluation also confirmed the further photo-actuation capability properties at light stimulation of various intensities and proved that composite material consisting of GO-PGMA particles provide systems with a significantly enhanced capability in comparison with neat GO as well as neat PDMS matrix.


2017 ◽  
Vol 898 ◽  
pp. 231-235
Author(s):  
Qiao Chu Wang ◽  
Rui Liu ◽  
Wen Jun Ye ◽  
Yang Yu ◽  
Xiao Yun Song ◽  
...  

The spilt Hopkinson pressure bar was employed to study dynamic compression mechanical response of Ti-2V alloy. The dynamic compression experiment was carried at a strain rate of 3000s-1. The microstructure of deformed specimen with ε=0.05, 0.18, 0.26 was observed by optical microscope. Electron Back-Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) technique was applied to confirm the types of twinning. Through analyzing mechanical response and microstructure evolution rule, the effect of element vanadium and deformation degree on dynamic mechanical properties and twinning deformation behavior was revealed. The results indicate that twinning is the prime dynamic deformation mechanism in Ti-2V alloy and the twinning fraction is increasingly raised during the deformation process. The twinning types, confirmed by Orientation Imaging Microscopy software, are namely {102}, {112} and {111} twinning. And the number of {111} twinning is far less than the other two types of twinning.


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