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Unconfined Compression Experimental Protocol for Cartilage Explants and Hydrogel Constructs: From Sample Preparation to Mechanical Characterization

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Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2598))

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Abstract

Mechanical characterization of articular cartilage and cell-seeded hydrogel constructs is a challenging task due to the complex biphasic behavior of these materials. Here we describe a step-by-step unconfined compression testing protocol for inverse mechanical characterization of these materials from sample preparation to parameter identification. Examples from our ongoing experiments on alginate hydrogel constructs and preserved and damaged cartilage explants obtained from human hip samples are presented.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (CREATION project: MSCA-IF-2019-893771) and KU Leuven/FWO Happy Joints project (C14/18/077 and G045320N). It is also part of the EOS excellence program Joint-Against OA (G0F8218N). The authors thank the KU Leuven core facility for biomechanical experimentation (FIBEr) and Mr. Wouter Willekens for their support in the experiments and analyzing the data.

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Author notes

  1. Nele Famaey and Ilse Jonkers have contributed equally to this work and share senior authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Movement Biomechanics Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Seyed Ali Elahi, Rocío Castro-Viñuelas, Anke Govaerts & Ilse Jonkers

  2. Soft Tissue Biomechanics Group, Biomechanics Division, Mechanical Engineering Department, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Seyed Ali Elahi & Nele Famaey

  3. Tissue homeostasis and Disease Group, Skeletal Biology and Engineering Research Center, Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Rocío Castro-Viñuelas, Anke Govaerts & Rik Lories

Authors
  1. Seyed Ali Elahi
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  2. Rocío Castro-Viñuelas
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  3. Anke Govaerts
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  4. Rik Lories
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  5. Nele Famaey
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  6. Ilse Jonkers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seyed Ali Elahi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. AO Research Institute Davos, Davos Platz, Switzerland

    Martin J. Stoddart

  2. AO Research Institute Davos, Davos Platz, Switzerland

    Elena Della Bella

  3. UCB Pharma, Slough, UK

    Angela R. Armiento

Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Materials

Supplementary material to this chapter contains the MATLAB scripts for image processing, and parameter fitting and can be found together with the guides to run the scripts on https://bme-soft-tissue.pages.gitlab.kuleuven.be/unconfined-compression/.

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Elahi, S.A., Castro-Viñuelas, R., Govaerts, A., Lories, R., Famaey, N., Jonkers, I. (2023). Unconfined Compression Experimental Protocol for Cartilage Explants and Hydrogel Constructs: From Sample Preparation to Mechanical Characterization. In: Stoddart, M.J., Della Bella, E., Armiento, A.R. (eds) Cartilage Tissue Engineering. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2598. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2839-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2839-3_19

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2838-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-2839-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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