Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Florida International University, 10555 West Flagler Street, Miami, Florida 33174, United States.
Biomedical Engineering Department, Florida International University, 10555 West Flagler Street, Miami, Florida 33174, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 May 24;15(20):24197-24208. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c04331. Epub 2023 May 13.
Ashby's map's role in rationally selecting materials for optimal performance is well-established in traditional engineering applications. However, there is a major gap in Ashby's maps in selecting materials for tissue engineering, which are very soft with an elastic modulus of less than 100 kPa. To fill the gap, we create an elastic modulus database to effectively connect soft engineering materials with biological tissues such as the cardiac, kidney, liver, intestine, cartilage, and brain. This soft engineering material mechanical property database is created for widely applied agarose hydrogels based on big-data screening and experiments conducted using ultra-low-concentration (0.01-0.5 wt %) hydrogels. Based on that, an experimental and analysis protocol is established for evaluating the elastic modulus of ultra-soft engineering materials. Overall, we built a mechanical bridge connecting soft matter and tissue engineering by fine-tuning the agarose hydrogel concentration. Meanwhile, a soft matter scale (degree of softness) is established to enable the manufacturing of implantable bio-scaffolds for tissue engineering.
阿什比图谱在为实现最佳性能而合理选择材料方面的作用在传统工程应用中已得到充分证实。然而，在选择弹性模量小于 100kPa 的组织工程材料方面，阿什比图谱存在一个重大缺口。为了填补这一空白，我们创建了一个弹性模量数据库，以有效地将软工程材料与心脏、肾脏、肝脏、肠道、软骨和大脑等生物组织联系起来。这个软工程材料力学性能数据库是基于大数据筛选和使用超低浓度（0.01-0.5wt%）水凝胶进行的实验创建的，适用于广泛应用的琼脂糖水凝胶。在此基础上，建立了一种用于评估超软工程材料弹性模量的实验和分析方案。总的来说，我们通过微调琼脂糖水凝胶浓度建立了连接软物质和组织工程的力学桥梁。同时，建立了软物质尺度（柔软度程度），以制造用于组织工程的可植入生物支架。
