Abstract
Constitutive behaviors and material properties of brain tissue play an essential role in accurately modeling its mechanical responses. However, the measured mechanical behaviors of brain tissue exhibit a large variability, and the reported elastic modulus can differ by orders of magnitude. Here we develop the micromechanical models based on the actual microstructure of the longitudinally anisotropic plane of brain tissue to investigate the microstructural origins of the large variability. Specifically, axonal fiber bundles with the specified configurations are distributed in an equivalent matrix. All micromechanical models are subjected to multiple loading modes, such as tensile, compressive, and shear loading, under periodic boundary conditions. The predicted results agree well with the experimental results. Furthermore, we investigate how brain tissue elasticity varies with its microstructural features. It is revealed that the large variability in brain tissue elasticity stems from the volume fraction of axonal fiber, the aspect ratio of axonal fiber, and the distribution of axonal fiber orientation. The volume fraction has the greatest impact on the mechanical behaviors of brain tissue, followed by the distribution of axonal fiber orientation, then the aspect ratio. This study provides critical insights for understanding the microstructural origins of the large variability in brain tissue elasticity.
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Funding
This work is supported by the National Key Research Development Program of China (No. 2020-JCJQ-ZD-254), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12102216, 11921002, and 11972210), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2021M691796 and 2021T140379).
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Peng Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Writing original draft, Funding acquisition. Zhibo Du: Methodology, Validation. Huibin Shi: Methodology, Validation. Junjie Liu: Methodology, Validation. Zhanli Liu: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing-review & editing. Zhuo Zhuang: Supervision, Writing-review & editing.
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Wang, P., Du, Z., Shi, H. et al. Origins of brain tissue elasticity under multiple loading modes by analyzing the microstructure-based models. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 22, 1239–1252 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-023-01714-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-023-01714-5