Rheological properties of glutaraldehyde-crosslinked collagen solutions analyzed quantitatively using mechanical models

• Rheological properties of collagen solutions crosslinked by GTA were studied.
• Experimental data were fitted by mechanical models (e.g. Carreau and Burger models).
• Both pseudoplasticity and thixotropy strengthened due to the addition of GTA.
• The GTA-crosslinked collagen solution exhibited more resistance to deformation.

Understanding the rheological behavior of collagen solutions crosslinked by various amounts of glutaraldehyde (GTA) [GTA/collagen (w/w) = 0–0.1] is fundamental either to design optimized products or to ensure stable flow. Under steady shear, all the samples exhibited pseudoplasticity with shear-thinning behavior, and the flow curves were well described by Ostwald-de Waele model and Carreau model. With increased amounts of GTA, the viscosity increased from 6.15 to 168.54 Pa·s at 0.1 s− 1, and the pseudoplasticity strengthened (the flow index decreased from 0.549 to 0.117). Additionally, hysteresis loops were evaluated to analyze the thixotropy of the native and crosslinked collagen solutions, and indicated that stronger thixotropic behavior was associated with higher amount of GTA. Furthermore, the values of apparent yield stress were negative, and a flow index < 1 for all the systems obtained via Herschel–Bulkley model confirmed that the native and crosslinked collagen solutions belonged to pseudoplastic fluid without apparent yield stress. However, the increment of dynamic denaturation temperature determined by dynamic temperature sweep was not obvious. The viscoelastic properties were examined based on creep–recovery measurements and then simulated using Burger model and a semi-empirical model. The increase in the proportion of recoverable compliance (instantaneous and retardant compliance) reflected that the crosslinked collagen solutions were more resistant to the deformation and exhibited more elastic behavior than the native collagen solution, accompanied by the fact that the compliance value decreased from 39.317 to 0.152 Pa− 1 and the recovery percentage increased from 1.128% to 87.604%. These data indicated that adjusting the amount of GTA could be a suitable mean for manipulating mechanical properties of collagen-based biomaterials.

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