title: Mechanical behaviour of a fibrous scaffold for ligament tissue engineering: finite elements analysis vs. X-ray tomography imaging.
abstract: The use of biodegradable scaffolds seeded with cells in order to regenerate functional tissue-engineered substitutes offers interesting alternative to common medical approaches for ligament repair. Particularly, finite element (FE) method enables the ability to predict and optimise both the macroscopic behaviour of these scaffolds and the local mechanic signals that control the cell activity. In this study, we investigate the ability of a dedicated FE code to predict the geometrical evolution of a new braided and biodegradable polymer scaffold for ligament tissue engineering by comparing scaffold geometries issued from FE simulations and from X-ray tomographic imaging during a tensile test. Moreover, we compare two types of FE simulations the initial geometries of which are issued either from X-ray imaging or from a computed idealised configuration. We report that the dedicated FE simulations from an idealised reference configuration can be reasonably used in the future to predict the global and local mechanical behaviour of the braided scaffold. A valuable and original dialog between the fields of experimental and numerical characterisation of such fibrous media is thus achieved. In the future, this approach should enable to improve accurate characterisation of local and global behaviour of tissue-engineering scaffolds.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, LEMTA, UMR 7563, Université de Lorraine, 2 avenue de la forêt de Haye, 54502 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. Electronic address: cedric.laurent@univ-lorraine.fr.
authors.forename: Cédric P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Laurent
authors.affiliation: CNRS, 3SR Lab, F-38000 Grenoble, France; Univ. Grenoble Alpes, 3SR Lab, F-38000 Grenoble, France. Electronic address: pierre.latil@3sr-grenoble.fr.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Latil
authors.affiliation: CNRS, MSSMat, UMR 8579, Ecole Centrale Paris, Grande Voie des Vignes, 92290 Chatenay-Malabry, France. Electronic address: damien.durville@ecp.fr.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Durville
authors.affiliation: CNRS, LEMTA, UMR 7563, Université de Lorraine, 2 avenue de la forêt de Haye, 54502 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. Electronic address: rachid.rahouadj@univ-lorraine.fr.
authors.forename: Rachid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rahouadj
authors.affiliation: CNRS, 3SR Lab, F-38000 Grenoble, France; Univ. Grenoble Alpes, 3SR Lab, F-38000 Grenoble, France. Electronic address: christian.geindreau@3sr-grenoble.fr.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Geindreau
authors.affiliation: CNRS, 3SR Lab, F-38000 Grenoble, France; Univ. Grenoble Alpes, 3SR Lab, F-38000 Grenoble, France. Electronic address: laurent.orgeas@3sr-grenoble.fr.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Orgéas
authors.affiliation: CNRS, LEMTA, UMR 7563, Université de Lorraine, 2 avenue de la forêt de Haye, 54502 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. Electronic address: jean-francois.ganghoffer@univ-lorraine.fr.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Ganghoffer
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D008022:Ligaments; D008422:Materials Testing; D011108:Polymers; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds; D014056:Tomography, X-Ray
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011108:Polymers
keywords: Braided biodegradable polymer scaffold; Finite element analysis; Ligament tissue engineering; X-ray microtomography