Connective soft tissues have complex mechanical properties that are determined by their collagen fiber network and surrounding non-fibrillar material. The mechanical role of non-fibrillar material and the nature of its interaction with the collagen network remain poorly understood, in part because of the lack of a simple experimental model system to examine and quantify these properties. The development of a simple but representational experimental system will allow for greater insight into the interaction between fibers and the non-fibrillar matrix. Reconstituted Type I collagen gels are an attractive model tissue for exploring micro- and macroscale relationships between constituents (e.g., [1–2]), but standard collagen gels lack the non-fibrillar components (i.e., proteoglycan, minor collagens, etc.) present in native tissue. A recent study [3] added low quantities of agarose to collagen gels, which dramatically increased the shear storage modulus with minimal changes to the collagen fiber network. In this study, we suggest that collagen-agarose co-gels can serve as a model system to investigate the mechanical role of non-fibrillar ECM. Even though agarose is relatively compliant at low concentrations, and collagen fibers are very stiff in tension, we hypothesized that the presence of agarose in co-gels would have a pronounced effect on structural response and mechanical behavior in tensile loading. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the properties of collagen-agarose co-gels to understand better the nature of, and the relationships between, the collagen fiber network and non-fibrillar matrix of simplified tissue analogs.
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ASME 2011 Summer Bioengineering Conference
June 22–25, 2011
Farmington, Pennsylvania, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Bioengineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-5458-7
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Collagen-Agarose Co-Gels as a Model for Collagen-Matrix Interaction in Soft Tissue
Spencer P. Lake,
Spencer P. Lake
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
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Sadie Doggett,
Sadie Doggett
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
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Victor H. Barocas
Victor H. Barocas
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Search for other works by this author on:
Spencer P. Lake
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Sadie Doggett
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Victor H. Barocas
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Paper No:
SBC2011-53640, pp. 1351-1352; 2 pages
Published Online:
July 17, 2013
Citation
Lake, SP, Doggett, S, & Barocas, VH. "Collagen-Agarose Co-Gels as a Model for Collagen-Matrix Interaction in Soft Tissue." Proceedings of the ASME 2011 Summer Bioengineering Conference. ASME 2011 Summer Bioengineering Conference, Parts A and B. Farmington, Pennsylvania, USA. June 22–25, 2011. pp. 1351-1352. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/SBC2011-53640
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