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Uniaxial and biaxial mechanical behavior of human amnion

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Abstract

Chorioamnion, the membrane surrounding a fetus during gestation, is a structural soft tissue critical for maintaining a successful pregnancy and delivery. However, the mechanical behavior of this tissue membrane is poorly understood. The structural component of chorioamnion is the amnion sublayer, which provides the membrane’s mechanical integrity via a dense collagen network and is the focus of this investigation. Amnion uniaxial and planar equi-biaxial tension testing was performed using cyclic loading and stress-relaxation. Cyclic testing demonstrated dramatic energy dissipation in the first cycle followed by less hysteresis on subsequent cycles. Fractional energy dissipation per cycle was strain dependent, with greatest dissipation at small strain levels. Stress-relaxation testing demonstrated a level-dependent response and continued relaxation after long relaxation times. A nonlinear viscoelastic (separable) hereditary integral approach was inadequate to model the amnion response due to intrinsic coupling of the strain- and time-dependent responses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysical Sciences and Medical Physics, and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455, USA

    Michelle L. Oyen

  2. University of Virginia, Center for Applied Biomechanics, 1011 Linden Ave., Charlottesville, VA, 22902, USA

    Michelle L. Oyen

  3. Independent Consultant, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55413, USA

    Robert F. Cook

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455, USA

    Triantafyllos Stylianopoulos

  5. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455, USA

    Victor H. Barocas

  6. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455, USA

    Steven E. Calvin & Daniel V. Landers

  7. Minnesota Perinatal Physicians/Allina Health System, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55407, USA

    Steven E. Calvin

Authors
  1. Michelle L. Oyen
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  2. Robert F. Cook
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  3. Triantafyllos Stylianopoulos
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  4. Victor H. Barocas
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  5. Steven E. Calvin
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  6. Daniel V. Landers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michelle L. Oyen.

Additional information

This paper was selected as the Outstanding Meeting Paper for the 2004 MRS Fall Meeting Symposium Y Proceedings, Vol. 844.

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Oyen, M.L., Cook, R.F., Stylianopoulos, T. et al. Uniaxial and biaxial mechanical behavior of human amnion. Journal of Materials Research 20, 2902–2909 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2005.0382

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2005.0382

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