Back to Search Start Over

Soft-Tissue-Mimicking Using Hydrogels for the Development of Phantoms

Authors :
Aitor Tejo-Otero
Felip Fenollosa-Artés
Isabel Achaerandio
Sergi Rey-Vinolas
Irene Buj-Corral
Miguel Ángel Mateos-Timoneda
Elisabeth Engel
Source :
Gels, Vol 8, Iss 1, p 40 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

With the currently available materials and technologies it is difficult to mimic the mechanical properties of soft living tissues. Additionally, another significant problem is the lack of information about the mechanical properties of these tissues. Alternatively, the use of phantoms offers a promising solution to simulate biological bodies. For this reason, to advance in the state-of-the-art a wide range of organs (e.g., liver, heart, kidney as well as brain) and hydrogels (e.g., agarose, polyvinyl alcohol –PVA–, Phytagel –PHY– and methacrylate gelatine –GelMA–) were tested regarding their mechanical properties. For that, viscoelastic behavior, hardness, as well as a non-linear elastic mechanical response were measured. It was seen that there was a significant difference among the results for the different mentioned soft tissues. Some of them appear to be more elastic than viscous as well as being softer or harder. With all this information in mind, a correlation between the mechanical properties of the organs and the different materials was performed. The next conclusions were drawn: (1) to mimic the liver, the best material is 1% wt agarose; (2) to mimic the heart, the best material is 2% wt agarose; (3) to mimic the kidney, the best material is 4% wt GelMA; and (4) to mimic the brain, the best materials are 4% wt GelMA and 1% wt agarose. Neither PVA nor PHY was selected to mimic any of the studied tissues.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
23102861
Volume :
8
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Gels
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.44bb904497fc4c99b5289f2f7b1361ed
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/gels8010040