The stress relaxation characteristics of composite matrices etched to produce nanoscale surface features

Many synthetic and xenogenic natural matrices have been explored in tissue regeneration, however, they lack either mechanical strength or cell colonization characteristics found in natural tissue. Moreover natural matrices such as small intestinal submucosa (SIS) lack sample to sample homogeneity, leading to unpredictable clinical outcomes. This work explored a novel fabrication technique by blending together the useful characteristics of synthetic and natural polymers to form a composite structure by using a NaOH etching process that produces nanoscale surface features. The composite scaffold was formed by sandwiching a thin layer of PLGA between porous layers of gelatin–chitosan. The etching process increased the surface roughness of PLGA membrane, allowing easy spreading of the hydrophilic gelatin–chitosan solution on its hydrophobic surface and reducing the scaffold thickness by nearly 50% than otherwise. The viscoelastic properties of the scaffold, an area of mechanical analysis which remains largely unexplored in tissue regeneration was assessed. Stress relaxation experiments of the “ramp and hold” type performed at variable ranges of temperature (25 °C and 37 °C), loading rates (3.125% s−1 and 12.5% s−1) and relaxation times (60 s, 100 s and 200 s) found stress relaxation to be sensitive to temperature and the loading rate but less dependent on the relaxation time. Stress relaxation behavior of the composite matrix was compared with SIS structures at 25 °C (hydrated), 3.125% s−1 loading rate and 100 s relaxation time which showed that the synthetic matrix was found to be strain softening as compared to the strain hardening behavior exhibited by SIS. Popularly used quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) model to describe biomechanics of soft tissues was utilized. The QLV model predicted the loading behavior with an average error of 3%. The parameters of the QLV model predicted using nonlinear regression analysis appear to be in concurrence with soft tissues.