Biomicromechanics of Stress-Assisted In-vitro Engineered Skin and Wound Remodeling

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

9988693 An environmental chamber for stress-assisted in vitro engineering of skin tissue will be built. Three dimensional natural collagen scaffolds will be immersed in a continuously replenished nutrient and seeded with fibroblast cells. This will be subjected to a sinusoidal loading at constant maximum load for at least 20 weeks. A similar collagen scaffold assay will be immersed in the same environment but not subjected to cyclic loads and deformations. The samples will be monitored periodically during growth to determine the effects of stress assistance on collagen density, anisotropy collagen moduli, fibroblast phenotype and fiber number density. The biomicromechanical constitutive modeling of collagen growth and remodeling will be pursues. The various known and speculated mechanisms driving collagen remodeling to HTS formation will be incorporated into the model as discussed. An anisotropic continuum model of collagen growth will be built using the experimental results to characterize the evolving network stiffness and anisotropy in relation to collagen growth.