Multiaxial mechanical behavior of the porcine anterior lens capsule

The biomechanics of the lens capsule of the eye is important both in physiologic processes such as accommodation and clinical treatments such as cataract surgery. Although the lens capsule experiences multiaxial stresses in vivo, there have been no measurements of its multiaxial properties or possible regional heterogeneities. Rather all prior mechanical data have come from 1-D pressure-volume or uniaxial force-length tests. Here, we report a new experimental approach to study in situ the regional, multiaxial mechanical behavior of the lens capsule. Moreover, we report multiaxial data suggesting that the porcine anterior lens capsule exhibits a typical nonlinear pseudo-elastic behavior over finite strains, that the in situ state is pre-stressed multi-axially, and that the meridional and circumferential directions are principal directions of strain, which is nearly equi-biaxial at the pole but less so towards the equator. Such data are fundamental to much needed constitutive formulations.