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Confined Mechanical Compression Testing Chamber and Anvil for Isotropic and Anisotropic Physiological Tissues and Their Representative Scaffolds

Summary

Researchers at OSU have developed a specialized compressionchamber to fully assess the mechanical characteristics of anisotropic gels.This chamber allows for compression testing of the gel in multipleorientations. In addition, the testing anvil allows fluid to diffuse in asimilar manner to physiological membranes, mimicking a physiological environmentinside the chamber. The need for this chamber will increase in parallel withthe growing evidence that anisotropic gels are superior at mimicking nativetissues for tissue engineering applications.

Technology Benefits

·       Fully assessesmechanical properties of anisotropic gels·       Testsmechanical strength of scaffold in multiple orientations·       Compatible withall types of biological and non-biological gels·       Simple designthat is cost-effective to build

Technology Application

·       Testingmechanical properties of hydrogels and gels·       Tissue engineeringapplications

Detailed Technology Description

None

*Abstract

None

*Background

Native tissues are three-dimensional, multi-layered andanisotropic in nature. However, gels currently used for tissue engineering applicationsare often single-layered and isotropic, which fail to mimic the architecture ofanisotropic native tissues. Mechanical strength of these gels is critical, assessedwith a compression chamber that will determine the force required to depress ananvil into the gel. However, as tissue engineering technology progresses, researchersare realizing that multi-layered, anisotropic gels with similar mechanical andphysical properties to native tissues are vastly superior to isotropic gels. Unfortunately,the standard chamber currently used to test mechanical strength of isotropicgels is not sufficient to measure the full mechanical properties of anisotropicgels.

*Stage of Development

WorkingPrototype

Country/Region

USA