Multiscale Structure-Function Relations of a Tendon

Abstract

In 1998, the United States National Committee on Biomechanics (USNCB) established an evolving discipline called Functional Tissue Engineering (FTE). In establishing this discipline, the goals of the USNCB were to advance FTE by increasing awareness among tissue engineers about the importance of restoring function when engineering tissue constructs. Another goal was to encourage tissue engineers to incorporate these functional criteria in the design, manufacturing and optimization of tissue engineered constructs. Based on this motivation, an investigation of the structure and mechanical properties of the rabbit patellar tendon will be executed, with the ultimate goal of creating a multiscale soft tissue model based on internal state variable (ISV) theory. Many continuum scale models, mostly phenomenological and microstrucutral, have been created to contribute to the understanding of the complex functional properties of the tendon, such as its anisotropy, inhomogeneity, nonlinearity, and viscoelasticity. However, none of these models have represented the mechanical behavior of the tendon in the presence of internal structural change on a multiscale level. The development of a multiscale ISV model will allow the capture of the irreversible, path history dependent aspects of the material behavior. The objective of this study is to contribute to the multiscale ISV model development by quantifying the structure- property relations. In particular, the fibril distribution at the microstructural level and the resultant multiaxial stress states (longitudinal and transverse compression and longitudinal tension) will be examined).