A Biomechanical Study of Directional Mechanical Properties of Porcine Skin Tissues

Skin is a multilayered composite material and composed principally of the proteins collagen, elastic fibers, and fibroblasts. The direction-dependent material properties of skin tissue is important for physiological functions like skin expansion. The current study has developed methods to characterize the directional biomechanical properties of porcine skin tissues. It is observed that skin tissue has a nonlinear anisotropy biomechanical behavior, where the parameters of material stiffness is 378 ±160 kPa in the preferred-fiber direction and 65.96±40.49 kPa in the cross-fiber direction when stretching above 30% strain equibiaxially. The results from the current study will help optimize functional skin stretching for patients requiring large surface area skin grafts and reconstructions due to burns or other injuries.