Characterizing liver capsule microstructure via in situ bulge test coupled with multiphoton imaging

The characterization of biological tissue at the microscopic scale is the starting point of many applications in tissue engineering and especially in the development of structurally based constitutive models. In the present study, focus is made on the liver capsule, the membrane encompassing hepatic parenchyma, which takes a huge part in liver mechanical properties. An in situ bulge test experiment under a multiphoton microscope has been developed to assess the microstructure changes that arise with biaxial loading. Multiphoton microscopy allows to observe the elastin and collagen fiber networks simultaneously. Thus a description of the microstructure organization of the capsule is given, characterizing the shapes, geometry and arrangement of fibers. The orientation of fibers is calculated and orientation distribution evolution with loading is given, in the case of an equibiaxial and two non equibiaxial loadings, thanks to a circular and elliptic set up of the bulge test. The local strain fields have also been computed, by the mean of a photobleaching grid, to get an idea of what the liver capsule might experience when subjected to internal pressure. Results show that strain fields present some heterogeneity due to anisotropy. Reorientation occurs in non equibiaxial loadings and involves fibers layers from the inner to the outer surface as expected. Although there is a fiber network rearrangement to accommodate with loading in the case of equibiaxial loading, there is no significant reorientation of the main fibers direction of the different layers.