Never underestimate how well-optimized your tissues are when it comes to serving and protecting your body. Most biological tissues are non-homogeneous, hierarchical, anisotropic, non-linear, rate dependent, adaptive composites. While computer models are clearly not yet perfect, mechanical test data can certainly be used to improve their accuracy even now.
In a new study published in Acta Biomaterialia, researchers in Ireland studied the tissues of the cranial meninges, which have been shown to play a pivotal role in traumatic brain injury. These tissues form a membrane inside the skull that envelopes the brain. For many of these tissues, there had been a lack of published mechanical test data to date. As a consequence, the study’s results will inform better computer models of traumatic brain injury, suggest further investigation into risks during angioplasty procedures, and may help with the selection of graft materials when required. The study’s research team used the CellScale BioTester to perform the biaxial tests on the dura mater, the superior sagittal sinus, and the falx cerebri.
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