Abstract :
[en] An adapted scaffold for Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tissue engineering must
match biological, morphological and biomechanical requirements. Computer-aided tissue
engineering consists of finding the most appropriate scaffold regarding a specific
application by using numerical tools. In the present study, the biomechanical behavior
of a new multilayer braided scaffold adapted to computer-aided tissue engineering is
computed by using a dedicated Finite Element (FE) code. Among different copoly(lactic
acid-co-(ε-caprolactone)) (PLCL) fibers tested in the present study, PLCL fibers with a
lactic acid/ε-caprolactone ratio of 85/15 were selected as a constitutive material for the
scaffold considering its strength and deformability. The mechanical behavior of these
fibers was utilized as material input in a Finite Element (FE) code which considers
contact/friction interactions between fibers within a large deformation framework. An
initial geometry issued from the braiding process was then computed and was found to
be representative of the actual scaffold geometry. Comparisons between simulated tensile
tests and experimental data show that the method enables to predict the tensile response
of the multilayer braided scaffold as a function of different process parameters. As a result,
the present approach constitutes a valuable tool in order to determine the configuration
which best fits the biomechanical requirements needed to restore the knee function during
the rehabilitation period. The developed approach also allows the mechanical stimuli due
to external loading to be quantified, and will be used to perform further mechanobiological
analyses of the scaffold under dynamic culture.
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