Multiscale modelling and homogenisation of fibre-reinforced hydrogels for tissue engineering.

ABSTRACT: Tissue engineering aims to grow artificial tissues in vitro to replace those in the body that have been damaged through age, trauma or disease. A recent approach to engineer artificial cartilage involves seeding cells within a scaffold consisting of an interconnected 3D-printed lattice of polymer fibres combined with a cast or printed hydrogel, and subjecting the construct (cell-seeded scaffold) to an applied load in a bioreactor. A key question is to understand how the applied load is distributed throughout the construct. To address this, we employ homogenisation theory to derive equations governing the effective macroscale material properties of a periodic, elastic-poroelastic composite. We treat the fibres as a linear elastic material and the hydrogel as a poroelastic material, a

SUBMITTER: Chen MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7116294 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature