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Understanding the Stiff-to-Compliant Transition of the Meniscal Attachments by Spatial Correlation of Composition, Structure, and Mechanics

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

A.J. Boys
J.A.M.R. Kunitake
C.R. Henak
Itai Cohen
L.A. Estroff
L.J. Bonassar

Abstract

Recently, the scientific community has shown considerable interest in engineering tissues with organized compositional and structural gradients to mimic hard-to-soft tissue interfaces. This effort is hindered by an incomplete understanding of the construction of native tissue interfaces. In this work, we combined Raman microscopy and confocal elastography to map compositional, structural, and mechanical features across the stiff-to-compliant interface of the attachments of the meniscus in the knee. This study provides new insight into the methods by which biology mediates multiple orders of magnitude changes in stiffness over tens of microns. We identified how the nano- to mesoscale architecture mediates complex microscale transitional regions across the interface: two regions defined by chemical composition, five distinguished by structural features, and three mechanically distinct regions. We identified three major components that lead to a robust interface between a soft tissue and bone: mobile collagen fiber units, a continuous interfacial region, and a local stiffness gradient. This tissue architecture allows for large displacements of collagen fibers in the attachments, enabling meniscal movement without localizing strains to the soft tissue-to-bone interface. The interplay of these regions reveals a method relying on hierarchical structuring across multiple length scales to minimize stress concentrators between highly dissimilar materials. These insights inspire new design strategies for synthetic soft tissue-to-bone attachments and biomimetic material interfaces. © 2019 American Chemical Society.

Date Published

Journal

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Volume

11

Issue

30

Number of Pages

26559-26570,

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85070850686&doi=10.1021%2facsami.9b03595&partnerID=40&md5=a86e158599da27e2d72a26750c49570f

DOI

10.1021/acsami.9b03595

Research Area

Group (Lab)

Itai Cohen Group

Funding Source

1536463
NSF 1807602
F31AR070009

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