Multi-scale mechanical characterization of highly swollen photo-activated collagen hydrogels

Multi-scale mechanical characterization of highly swollen photo-activated collagen hydrogels

Biological hydrogels have been increasingly sought after as wound dressings or scaffolds for regenerative medicine, owing to their inherent biofunctionality in biological environments. Especially in moist wound healing, the ideal material should absorb large amounts of wound exudate while remaining mechanically competent in situ. Despite their large hydration, however, current biological hydrog...

Mechanical characterization of sequentially layered photo-clickable thiol-ene hydrogels.

Multi-layer hydrogels are promising for tissue engineering due to the ability to control the local properties within each layer. However, the interface that forms between each layer has the potential to affect the performance of the hydrogel. The goals of this study were to characterize how the interface forms via its thickness and mechanical properties, identify its impact on the overall hydro...

Non-destructive mechanical characterisation of UVA/riboflavin crosslinked collagen hydrogels.

AIMS To establish a non-destructive method of characterising the mechanical properties of collagen hydrogels to model corneal tissue and to examine the effect of photochemical crosslinking on their mechanical properties. METHODS Collagen hydrogels were manufactured, submerged in 0.1% riboflavin solution and crosslinked using two UVA tube bulbs with an intensity of between 2.8 and 3.2 mW/cm(2)...

Multi-scale Modelling and Mechanical Characterization of Porous Hierarchical Hydroxyapatite

Manipulation of Collagen Fibers for Mechanical Characterization

Introduction Collagen is the most abundant protein in the mammalian anatomy, manifesting itself in a wide variety of forms, functions, and types. In biological systems, collagen fibers provide the major mechanical support for cell attachment, thus developing the shape and form of tissues1. Collagen is used as scaffolding material in tissue engineering, but must first be characterized for mechan...