Gradient-enhanced continuum models of healing in damaged soft tissues

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Soft biological tissue healing involves self-repair of the extracellular matrix (ECM).
• Current models often assume stress-driven healing, aiming for homeostatic stress metrics.
• Intrinsic length scales in soft tissues suggest the need for non-local computational models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce two novel gradient-enhanced constitutive healing models for soft tissues.
• To incorporate non-local variables into computational models of tissue healing.
• To simulate soft tissue healing processes and their application in medical interventions.

Main Methods:

• Development of two gradient-enhanced constitutive healing models with non-local variables.
• Implementation of models within the Abaqus finite-element package using a user subroutine (UEL).
• Numerical simulation of three 2D scenarios modeling soft tissue healing.

Main Results:

• Successful implementation and numerical simulation of the proposed healing models.
• Demonstration of model application in simulating balloon angioplasty.
• Illustration of damage field evolution and geometric changes in the media layer during healing.

Conclusions:

• Gradient-enhanced constitutive models with non-local variables provide a more accurate approach to simulating soft tissue healing.
• These models offer valuable insights into the mechanical processes underlying tissue repair.
• The developed models have potential applications in simulating and optimizing medical procedures like balloon angioplasty.