Abstract
<p>Meniscal tears are the most common type of traumatic knee injury, accounting for 15% of all knee injuries in active young adults. Although most of the mechanical properties of human menisci have been characterized, to our knowledge, its dynamic shear and compressive properties have never been reported. The objective of this thesis was to investigate the biomechanical properties of human menisci to fabricate a biomimetic tissue scaffold for future clinical use. </p><p>It was hypothesized that by utilizing the electrospinning and fiber bonding technique presented in this thesis, the scaffolds would have comparable mechanical characteristics to that of the human meniscus. Accordingly, the dynamic and equilibrium shear and compressive biomechanical properties of human menisci and electrospun gelatin-based scaffolds were determined and compared utilizing a rotational rheometer and compressive biomaterials tester to increase knowledge on the mechanical characteristics of human meniscal tissue; further elucidate the etiology of meniscal tearing; and determine the characteristics necessary to be recapitulated in an engineered meniscal construct. Physical properties including the equilibrium shear modulus, storage modulus, loss modulus, complex modulus, and equilibrium aggregate modulus were determined at varying physiologically relevant levels of compression to explicate the material properties and comparability of human menisci and gelatin-based electrospun scaffolds. </p><p>It was found that the G’, G’’, G*, δ, and water content of the 5% w/v electrospun gelatin scaffolds showed moderate comparability to that of the human meniscus at all levels of compression and frequencies, however, the statistically significant differences between the G’’ at low frequency and G at 10% compression indicates that the parameters at which both sets of scaffolds were produced are not ideal for the proposed biomimetic scaffold. A recommendation for future study is enclosed.