Stress-strain properties of natural and biomimetically formed collagen constructs

The biomimetic formed solution of collagen reconstituted films into native fibers proved to be of high interest because of its regenerative medical applications. A variety of tests to characterize the mechanical properties of biomimetic engineered films are illustrated in this paper. Based on our previous results, the modulus of elasticity and the ultimate strain of reconstituted collagen films were compared to the reported stress-strain data in the literature on various tissues (animal material), correlating the achieved properties with possible use for artificial tissue implants. The results presented in this study, with great potential to provide reference data for future work, show that the mechanical properties of the biomimetically formed collagen films is close to that of several native collagen fibers, a fact which suggests their use in medical applications