Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology Studies
Following the general aim of recapitulating the native mechanical properties of tissues and organs in vitro, the field of materials science and engineering has benefited from recent progress in developing compliant substrates with physical and chemical properties similar to those of biological mater...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Polymers |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/4/629 |
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| author | Daniel Pérez-Calixto Samuel Amat-Shapiro Diego Zamarrón-Hernández Genaro Vázquez-Victorio Pierre-Henri Puech Mathieu Hautefeuille |
| author_facet | Daniel Pérez-Calixto Samuel Amat-Shapiro Diego Zamarrón-Hernández Genaro Vázquez-Victorio Pierre-Henri Puech Mathieu Hautefeuille |
| author_sort | Daniel Pérez-Calixto |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Following the general aim of recapitulating the native mechanical properties of tissues and organs in vitro, the field of materials science and engineering has benefited from recent progress in developing compliant substrates with physical and chemical properties similar to those of biological materials. In particular, in the field of mechanobiology, soft hydrogels can now reproduce the precise range of stiffnesses of healthy and pathological tissues to study the mechanisms behind cell responses to mechanics. However, it was shown that biological tissues are not only elastic but also relax at different timescales. Cells can, indeed, perceive this dissipation and actually need it because it is a critical signal integrated with other signals to define adhesion, spreading and even more complicated functions. The mechanical characterization of hydrogels used in mechanobiology is, however, commonly limited to the elastic stiffness (Young’s modulus) and this value is known to depend greatly on the measurement conditions that are rarely reported in great detail. Here, we report that a simple relaxation test performed under well-defined conditions can provide all the necessary information for characterizing soft materials mechanically, by fitting the dissipation behavior with a generalized Maxwell model (GMM). The simple method was validated using soft polyacrylamide hydrogels and proved to be very useful to readily unveil precise mechanical properties of gels that cells can sense and offer a set of characteristic values that can be compared with what is typically reported from microindentation tests. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:42:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e18c814fecc24168aefcfc9e058e518c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4360 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:42:34Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Polymers |
| spelling | doaj.art-e18c814fecc24168aefcfc9e058e518c2023-12-11T17:45:04ZengMDPI AGPolymers2073-43602021-02-0113462910.3390/polym13040629Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology StudiesDaniel Pérez-Calixto0Samuel Amat-Shapiro1Diego Zamarrón-Hernández2Genaro Vázquez-Victorio3Pierre-Henri Puech4Mathieu Hautefeuille5Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, MexicoDepartamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, MexicoDepartamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, MexicoDepartamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, MexicoAdhesion and Inflammation Lab (LAI), Aix Marseille University, LAI UM 61, Inserm, UMR_S 1067, CNRS, UMR 7333, F-13288 Marseille, FranceDepartamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, MexicoFollowing the general aim of recapitulating the native mechanical properties of tissues and organs in vitro, the field of materials science and engineering has benefited from recent progress in developing compliant substrates with physical and chemical properties similar to those of biological materials. In particular, in the field of mechanobiology, soft hydrogels can now reproduce the precise range of stiffnesses of healthy and pathological tissues to study the mechanisms behind cell responses to mechanics. However, it was shown that biological tissues are not only elastic but also relax at different timescales. Cells can, indeed, perceive this dissipation and actually need it because it is a critical signal integrated with other signals to define adhesion, spreading and even more complicated functions. The mechanical characterization of hydrogels used in mechanobiology is, however, commonly limited to the elastic stiffness (Young’s modulus) and this value is known to depend greatly on the measurement conditions that are rarely reported in great detail. Here, we report that a simple relaxation test performed under well-defined conditions can provide all the necessary information for characterizing soft materials mechanically, by fitting the dissipation behavior with a generalized Maxwell model (GMM). The simple method was validated using soft polyacrylamide hydrogels and proved to be very useful to readily unveil precise mechanical properties of gels that cells can sense and offer a set of characteristic values that can be compared with what is typically reported from microindentation tests.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/4/629relaxationdissipationmicroindentationpolyacrylamide hydrogelsviscoelasticity |
| spellingShingle | Daniel Pérez-Calixto Samuel Amat-Shapiro Diego Zamarrón-Hernández Genaro Vázquez-Victorio Pierre-Henri Puech Mathieu Hautefeuille Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology Studies Polymers relaxation dissipation microindentation polyacrylamide hydrogels viscoelasticity |
| title | Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology Studies |
| title_full | Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology Studies |
| title_fullStr | Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology Studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology Studies |
| title_short | Determination by Relaxation Tests of the Mechanical Properties of Soft Polyacrylamide Gels Made for Mechanobiology Studies |
| title_sort | determination by relaxation tests of the mechanical properties of soft polyacrylamide gels made for mechanobiology studies |
| topic | relaxation dissipation microindentation polyacrylamide hydrogels viscoelasticity |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/4/629 |
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