Viscoelastic characterization of rat cerebral cortex and type I collagen scaffolds for central nervous system tissue engineering

► We performed indentation testing of rat brain and collagen scaffold biomaterials. ► We applied a linear viscoelastic Maxwell model to stress-relaxation data. ► We compared material properties of the brain and various collagen scaffolds. ► Brain properties during loading were similar to 1.0% collagen scaffolds. ► The brain relaxed faster and to a greater extent than the collagen scaffolds.