3D in-situ characterization reveals the instability-induced auxetic behavior of collagen scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract

Collagen scaffolds seeded with human chondrocytes have shown great potential for cartilage repair and regeneration. However, these porous scaffolds buckle under low compressive forces, creating regions of highly localized deformations that can cause cell death and deteriorate the integrity of the engineered tissue. We perform three-dimensional (3D) tomography-based characterization to track the evolution of collagen scaffolds’ microstructure under large deformation. The results illustrate how instabilities produce a spatially varying compaction across the specimens, with more pronounced collapse near the free boundaries. We discover that, independent of differences in pore-size distributions, all collagen scaffolds examined displayed strong auxetic behavior i.e., their transverse area contracts under compression, as a result of the instability cascade. This feature, typically characteristic of engineered metamaterials, is of critical importance for the performance of collagen scaffolds in tissue engineering, especially regarding the persistent challenge of lateral integration in cartilage constructs.