Prof. Lauren Flynn and her team at Western University, Canada, are exploring new strategies to stimulate cutaneous tissue repair for the treatment of chronic wounds. They have developed a unique three-dimensional network of porous beads which they call “bead foams”. These foams are created from either human decellularized adipose tissue (DAT) or commercially-sourced bovine tendon collagen (COL). Prof. Flynn and her team have tested the foams with human wound edge dermal fibroblasts sourced from chronic wound tissues.
In this research, the CellScale MicroTester was used in parallel plate compression mode to quantify the mechanical properties of the beads under physiological conditions. The beads were nominally 1-2mm in diameter and were compressed to 50% of their original height with a force of 100μN.The video below from the onboard MicroTester imaging system shows the parallel plate compression test while the graphs above show the force-displacement data (left) and the Young’s modulus of the DAT and COL beads (right).
Read the full journal article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2018.10.042
To read about a unique anti-fatigue-fracture hydrogels research, click here.
