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Load-Relaxation Characteristics of Chemical and Physical Hydrogels as Soft Tissue Mimics

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Abstract

Background

Load-relaxation under a constant state of deformation is a common characteristic of hydrated materials, including hydrogels and biological tissues. Overall, mechanical response in such materials is a strong function of underlying structure, which in hydrogels depends on whether the gel is formed through physical or chemical cross-linking. In order to use hydrogels in biomedical applications where their properties are matched to those of native tissues, it is critical to understand these underlying structure-properties relationships.

Objective

The objective of current work is to quantitatively characterize the load-relaxation behavior of physical and chemical gels and perform a comparative analysis with several biological tissues.

Methods

Microindentation-based load-relaxation experiments were performed on three physical (agar, alginate, and gelatin) gels and one chemical (polyacrylamide) gel with a range of experimental time frames.

Results

All three physical gels exhibit strong time-dependent load-relaxation behavior where faster indentation leads to pronounced load-relaxation over short time-scales. The polyacrylamide gel is largely time-independent and exhibits negligible relaxation within short time-scales. The material property intrinsic permeability, which relates to underlying pore structure, was time-independent for both physical and chemical gels.

Conclusions

A comparative analysis reveals that different aspects of the time-dependent properties of biological tissues are captured by physical and chemical hydrogels, with implications for tissue engineering applications.

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Funding

Funding was provided by the ECU Division of Research, Economic Development and Engagement (REDE) via start-up funds to MLO, including post-doc salary support for MRI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering, East Carolina University, 4200 Ross Hall, 1851 MacGregor Downs Rd., Greenville, 27834, NC, USA

    M. R. Islam

  2. Department of Engineering, East Carolina University, 216 Slay Hall, Mail Stop 117, Greenville, 27858-4353, NC, USA

    M. L. Oyen

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  1. M. R. Islam
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Correspondence to M. L. Oyen.

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Islam, M.R., Oyen, M.L. Load-Relaxation Characteristics of Chemical and Physical Hydrogels as Soft Tissue Mimics. Exp Mech 61, 939–949 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-021-00712-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-021-00712-x

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