Journal article

Mechanical and biochemical mapping of human auricular cartilage for reliable assessment of tissue-engineered constructs

L Nimeskern, MM Pleumeekers, DJ Pawson, WLM Koevoet, I Lehtoviita, MB Soyka, C Röösli, D Holzmann, GJVM van Osch, R Müller, KS Stok

Journal of Biomechanics | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2015

Abstract

It is key for successful auricular (AUR) cartilage tissue-engineering (TE) to ensure that the engineered cartilage mimics the mechanics of the native tissue. This study provides a spatial map of the mechanical and biochemical properties of human auricular cartilage, thus establishing a benchmark for the evaluation of functional competency in AUR cartilage TE.Stress-relaxation indentation (instantaneous modulus, Ein; maximum stress, σmax; equilibrium modulus, Eeq; relaxation half-life time, t1/2; thickness, h) and biochemical parameters (content of DNA; sulfated-glycosaminoglycan, sGAG; hydroxyproline, HYP; elastin, ELN) of fresh human AUR cartilage were evaluated. Samples were categorized in..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the donors and their families who enabled this research, and Dr. GJ. Kleinrensink, Y. van Steinvoort and B.J. Korstanje (Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and Dr. Nicole Rotter (Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ulm University Medical Center, Ulm, Germany) for their assistance in obtaining human donor tissue. This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (NRP63) and ERA-NET/EuroNanoMed (EAREG-406340-131009/1).