Modeling Tunable Fracture in Hydrogel Shell Structures for Biomedical Applications

Overview

Journal Gels

Date 2022 Aug 25

PMID 36005116

Authors

Gang Zhang

Hai Qiu

Khalil I Elkhodary

Shan Tang

Dan Peng

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Hydrogels are nowadays widely used in various biomedical applications, and show great potential for the making of devices such as biosensors, drug- delivery vectors, carriers, or matrices for cell cultures in tissue engineering, etc. In these applications, due to the irregular complex surface of the human body or its organs/structures, the devices are often designed with a small thickness, and are required to be flexible when attached to biological surfaces. The devices will deform as driven by human motion and under external loading. In terms of mechanical modeling, most of these devices can be abstracted as shells. In this paper, we propose a mixed graph-finite element method (FEM) phase field approach to model the fracture of curved shells composed of hydrogels, for biomedical applications. We present herein examples for the fracture of a wearable biosensor, a membrane-coated drug, and a matrix for a cell culture, each made of a hydrogel. Used in combination with experimental material testing, our method opens a new pathway to the efficient modeling of fracture in biomedical devices with surfaces of arbitrary curvature, helping in the design of devices with tunable fracture properties.

References

Liu Y, Luo Y, Zhang P, Yang W, Zhang C, Yin Y . The Preparation of Novel P(OEGMA-co-MEOMA) Microgels-Based Thermosensitive Hydrogel and Its Application in Three-Dimensional Cell Scaffold. Gels. 2022; 8(5). PMC: 9140487. DOI: 10.3390/gels8050313. View

Pham T, Sulejmani F, Shin E, Wang D, Sun W . Quantification and comparison of the mechanical properties of four human cardiac valves. Acta Biomater. 2017; 54:345-355. DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2017.03.026. View

Komkova M, Eliseev A, Poyarkov A, Daboss E, Evdokimov P, Eliseev A . Simultaneous monitoring of sweat lactate content and sweat secretion rate by wearable remote biosensors. Biosens Bioelectron. 2022; 202:113970. DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2022.113970. View

Jafari H, Dadashzadeh A, Moghassemi S, Zahedi P, Amorim C, Shavandi A . Ovarian Cell Encapsulation in an Enzymatically Crosslinked Silk-Based Hydrogel with Tunable Mechanical Properties. Gels. 2021; 7(3). PMC: 8482098. DOI: 10.3390/gels7030138. View

Culver H, Clegg J, Peppas N . Analyte-Responsive Hydrogels: Intelligent Materials for Biosensing and Drug Delivery. Acc Chem Res. 2017; 50(2):170-178. PMC: 6130197. DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00533. View

Javed Ansari M, Rajendran R, Mohanto S, Agarwal U, Panda K, Dhotre K . Poly(-isopropylacrylamide)-Based Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications: A Review of the State-of-the-Art. Gels. 2022; 8(7). PMC: 9323937. DOI: 10.3390/gels8070454. View

Gibbs D, Black C, Dawson J, Oreffo R . A review of hydrogel use in fracture healing and bone regeneration. J Tissue Eng Regen Med. 2014; 10(3):187-98. DOI: 10.1002/term.1968. View

Bratskaya S, Skatova A, Privar Y, Boroda A, Kantemirova E, Maiorova M . Stimuli-Responsive Dual Cross-Linked -Carboxyethylchitosan Hydrogels with Tunable Dissolution Rate. Gels. 2021; 7(4). PMC: 8628705. DOI: 10.3390/gels7040188. View

Yang Y, Zhou M, Peng J, Wang X, Liu Y, Wang W . Robust, anti-freezing and conductive bonding of chitosan-based double-network hydrogels for stable-performance flexible electronic. Carbohydr Polym. 2021; 276:118753. DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118753. View

10.

Pang J, Wang L, Xu Y, Wu M, Wang M, Liu Y . Skin-inspired cellulose conductive hydrogels with integrated self-healing, strain, and thermal sensitive performance. Carbohydr Polym. 2020; 240:116360. DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116360. View

11.

Han M, Chen L, Aras K, Liang C, Chen X, Zhao H . Catheter-integrated soft multilayer electronic arrays for multiplexed sensing and actuation during cardiac surgery. Nat Biomed Eng. 2020; 4(10):997-1009. PMC: 8021456. DOI: 10.1038/s41551-020-00604-w. View

12.

Tong R, Chen G, Pan D, Qi H, Li R, Tian J . Highly Stretchable and Compressible Cellulose Ionic Hydrogels for Flexible Strain Sensors. Biomacromolecules. 2019; 20(5):2096-2104. DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.9b00322. View

13.

Sorber J, Steiner G, Schulz V, Guenther M, Gerlach G, Salzer R . Hydrogel-based piezoresistive pH sensors: investigations using FT-IR attenuated total reflection spectroscopic imaging. Anal Chem. 2008; 80(8):2957-62. DOI: 10.1021/ac702598n. View

14.

Zhou Z, Li Y, Wong W, Guo T, Tang S, Luo J . Transition of surface-interface creasing in bilayer hydrogels. Soft Matter. 2017; 13(35):6011-6020. DOI: 10.1039/c7sm01013c. View

15.

Zhang J, Wang Y, Wei Q, Wang Y, Lei M, Li M . Self-Healing Mechanism and Conductivity of the Hydrogel Flexible Sensors: A Review. Gels. 2021; 7(4). PMC: 8628684. DOI: 10.3390/gels7040216. View

16.

Krishnan V, Yuen Hui C, Long R . Finite strain crack tip fields in soft incompressible elastic solids. Langmuir. 2008; 24(24):14245-53. DOI: 10.1021/la802795e. View

17.

Wischerhoff E, Zacher T, Laschewsky A, Rekai E . Direct Observation of the Lower Critical Solution Temperature of Surface-Attached Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels by Surface Plasmon Resonance The work was supported by the European Commission (research grants CEE BIO-CT97-962372 and ERBFMBCT 982915). . Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2001; 39(24):4602-4604. View

18.

Yu D, Du D, Yang H, Tu Y . Parallel computing simulation of electrical excitation and conduction in the 3D human heart. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2015; 2014:4315-9. DOI: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944579. View

19.

Yang Y, Wang X, Yang F, Wang L, Wu D . Highly Elastic and Ultratough Hybrid Ionic-Covalent Hydrogels with Tunable Structures and Mechanics. Adv Mater. 2018; 30(18):e1707071. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201707071. View

20.

Zou P, Yao J, Cui Y, Zhao T, Che J, Yang M . Advances in Cellulose-Based Hydrogels for Biomedical Engineering: A Review Summary. Gels. 2022; 8(6). PMC: 9222388. DOI: 10.3390/gels8060364. View