Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud, Sultanate of Oman.
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
Technol Health Care. 2020;28(6):685-695. doi: 10.3233/THC-191984.
Biological hydrogels provide a conducive three-dimensional extracellular matrix environment for encapsulating and cultivating living cells. Microenvironmental modulus of hydrogels dictates several characteristics of cell functions such as proliferation, adhesion, self-renewal, differentiation, migration, cell morphology and fate. Precise measurement of the mechanical properties of gels is necessary for investigating cellular mechanobiology in a variety of applications in tissue engineering. Elastic properties of gels are strongly influenced by the amount of crosslinking density.
The main purpose of the present study was to determine the elastic modulus of two types of well-known biological hydrogels: Agarose and Gelatin Methacryloyl.
Mechanical properties such as Young's modulus, fracture stress and failure strain of the prescribed gels with a wide range of concentrations were determined using tension and compression tests.
The elastic modulus, failure stress and strain were found to be strongly influenced when the amount of concentration in the hydrogels was changed. The elastic modulus for a lower level of concentration, not considered in this study, was also predicted using statistical analysis.
Closed matching of the mechanical properties of the gels revealed that the bulk tension and compression tests could be confidently used for assessing mechanical properties of delicate biological hydrogels.
生物水凝胶为包封和培养活细胞提供了有利的三维细胞外基质环境。水凝胶的微环境模量决定了细胞功能的几个特征，如增殖、黏附、自我更新、分化、迁移、细胞形态和命运。精确测量凝胶的力学性能对于研究组织工程中各种应用中的细胞力学生物学是必要的。凝胶的弹性性质强烈地受到交联密度的影响。
本研究的主要目的是确定两种著名的生物水凝胶：琼脂糖和明胶甲基丙烯酰。
使用拉伸和压缩试验测定了具有广泛浓度的规定凝胶的杨氏模量、断裂应力和失效应变等力学性能。
发现当水凝胶中的浓度发生变化时，弹性模量、失效应力和应变受到强烈影响。也使用统计分析预测了本研究中未考虑的较低浓度水平的弹性模量。
凝胶的力学性能的紧密匹配表明，体积拉伸和压缩试验可以用于评估精细生物水凝胶的力学性能。
