title: Laminar Tendon Composites with Enhanced Mechanical Properties.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A strong isotropic material that is both biocompatible and biodegradable is desired for many biomedical applications, including rotator cuff repair, tendon and ligament repair, vascular grafting, among others. Recently, we developed a technique, called "bioskiving" to create novel 2D and 3D constructs from decellularized tendon, using a combination of mechanical sectioning, and layered stacking and rolling. The unidirectionally aligned collagen nanofibers (derived from sections of decellularized tendon) offer good mechanical properties to the constructs compared with those fabricated from reconstituted collagen.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this paper, we studied the effect that several variables have on the mechanical properties of structures fabricated from tendon slices, including crosslinking density and the orientation in which the fibers are stacked.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed that following stacking and crosslinking, the strength of the constructs is significantly improved, with crosslinked sections having an ultimate tens ile strength over 20 times greater than non-crosslinked samples, and a modulus nearly 50 times higher. The mechanism of the mechanical failure mode of the tendon constructs with or without crosslinking was also investigated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strength and fiber organization, combined with the ability to introduce transversely isotropic mechanical properties makes the laminar tendon composites a biocompatiable material that may find future use in a number of biomedical and tissue engineering applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby Street, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: Kyle A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Alberti
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA ; Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 02138, USA ; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744 Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong-Yun
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA ; Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Widusha R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Illeperuma
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA ; Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Suo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby Street, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, USA.
authors.forename: Qiaobing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
keywords: biomaterials; collagen; mechanical properties; tendon