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| Home > Publications database > Inducing irreversible strain hardening and alignment during collagen gelation |
| Conference Presentation (After Call) | FZJ-2023-03987 |
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2023
Abstract: Collagen is one of the main building blocks of the mammalian extracellular matrix, due to its ability to form tough structures with a wide variety of non-linear mechanical properties allowing it to support multiple tissue types. The mechanical properties of collagen gels have been extensively studied under static conditions, however, in nature gelation will mostly take place in the presence of flow. Here we show how the modulus and the alignment of the fibrillar collagen hydrogel can be tuned by applying a stress-ramp at a well-defined moment during gelation, following up on our earlier study [1]. Where the first stress block induces most of the final strain, sequential increases in stress cause the modulus to rapidly increase (see figure). This effect is more pronounced when gelation takes place at 37 oC, where due to relatively rapid kinetics a dense network of thin filaments is formed, than at 27 oC, where slower kinetics result in the formation of an open network with thick bundles. Contrary to the modulus, the increase in alignment is more pronounced for the samples formed at lower temperatures. Thus, we not only produce tough gels with alignment, but also provide insight into in vivo collagen structure formation.
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