Although there has been an upsurge of interest in research on women's sexual and reproductive health, most of the research has remained confined to the obstetrics and gynecology disciplines, without knowledge flow to the biomechanics community. Thus, the mechanics of the female reproductive system and the changes determined by pregnancy, age, obesity, and various medical conditions have not been thoroughly studied. In recent years, more investigators have been focusing their efforts on evaluating the mechanical properties of the reproductive organs and supportive connective tissues, but, despite the many advances, there is still a lot that remains to be done. This paper provides an overview of the research published over the past few decades on the mechanical characterization of the primary female reproductive organs and supporting connective tissues. For each organ and tissue, after a brief description of the function and structure, the testing methods and main mechanical results are presented. Constitutive equations are then reviewed for all organs/tissues together. The goal is to spark the interest of new investigators to this largely untapped but fast-evolving branch of soft tissue mechanics that will impact women's gynecologic, reproductive, and sexual health care.

This work investigates the feasibility of the use of irreversible electroporation (IRE) in the biofabrication of 3D cellulose nanofibril networks via the bacterial strain Gluconacetobacter xylinus. IRE uses electrical pulses to increase membrane permeability by altering the transmembrane potential; past a threshold, damage to the cell becomes too great and leads to cell death. We hypothesized that using IRE to kill the bacteria at specific locations and particular times, we could introduce conduits in the overall scaffold by preventing cellulose biosynthesis locally. Through mathematical modeling and experimental techniques, electrical effects were investigated and the parameters for IRE of Gluconacetobacter xylinus were determined. We found that for a specific set of parameters, an applied electric field of 8 kV/cm to 12.5 kV/cm was sufficient to kill bacteria and create a localized pore. We also found that an applied electric field of 8 kV/cm to 12.5 kV/cm, which produces a local field of 3 kV/cm was sufficient to kill most of the bacteria and produce a localized pore, but an applied electric field of 17.5 kV/cm was required to kill all. Results suggest that IRE may be an effective tool to create scaffolds with appropriate porosity for orthopedic applications. Ideally, these engineered scaffolds could be used to successfully treat osteochondral defects.

The uterosacral ligament (USL) is a major suspensory structure of the female pelvic floor, providing support to the cervix and/or upper vagina. it plays a pivotal role in surgical procedures for pelvic organ prolapse (PoP) aimed at restoring apical support. Despite its important mechanical function, little is known about the mechanical properties of the USL due to the constraints associated with in vivo testing of human USL and the lack of validated large animal models that enable such investigations. in this study, we provide the first comparison of the mechanical properties of swine and human USLs. Preconditioning and pre-creep data up to a 2 N load and creep data under a 2 N load over 1200 s were obtained on swine (n = 9) and human (n = 9) USL specimens by performing planar equi-biaxial tensile tests and using the digital image correlation method. No differences in the peak strain during preconditioning tests, secant modulus of the pre-creep response, and strain at the end of creep tests were detected in the USLs from the two species along both axial loading directions (the main in vivo loading direction and the direction that is perpendicular to it). These findings suggest that the swine holds promise as large animal model for studying the mechanical role of the USL in apical vaginal support and treatment of PoP.

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