The cervix plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy pregnancy, acting as a mechanical barrier to hold the fetus in utero during gestation. Altered mechanical properties of the cervical tissue are suspected to play a critical role in spontaneous preterm birth. Both MRI and X-ray data in the literature indicate that cervical stroma contains regions of preferentially aligned collagen fibers along anatomical directions (circumferential/longitudinal/radial). In this study, a mechanical testing protocol is developed to investigate the large-strain response of cervical tissue in uniaxial tension and compression along its three orthogonal anatomical directions. The stress response of the tissue along the different orthogonal directions is captured using a minimal set of model parameters generated by fitting a one-dimensional time-dependent rheological model to the experimental data. Using model parameters, mechanical responses can be compared between samples from patients with different obstetric backgrounds, between samples from different anatomical sites, and between the different loading directions for a single specimen. The results presented in this study suggest that cervical tissue is mechanically anisotropic with a uniaxial response dependent on the direction of loading, the anatomical site of the specimen, and the obstetric history of the patient. We hypothesize that the directionality of the tissue mechanical response is primarily due to collagen orientation in the cervical stroma, and provides an interpretation of our mechanical findings consistent with the literature data on preferential collagen alignment.
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e-mail: kmyers@alum.mit.edu
e-mail: ssocrate@mit.edu
e-mail: apaskal@alum.mit.edu
e-mail: mhouse@tuftsmedicalcenter.org
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February 2010
Research Papers
A Study of the Anisotropy and Tension/Compression Behavior of Human Cervical Tissue
Kristin M. Myers,
Kristin M. Myers
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: kmyers@alum.mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-347A, Cambridge, MA 02139
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Simona Socrate,
Simona Socrate
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology,
e-mail: ssocrate@mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room E25-406, Cambridge, MA 02139
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Anastassia Paskaleva,
Anastassia Paskaleva
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: apaskal@alum.mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-347A, Cambridge, MA 02139
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Michael House, M.D.
Michael House, M.D.
Maternal/Fetal Medicine,
e-mail: mhouse@tuftsmedicalcenter.org
Tufts Medical Center
, 800 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111
Search for other works by this author on:
Kristin M. Myers
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-347A, Cambridge, MA 02139e-mail: kmyers@alum.mit.edu
Simona Socrate
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room E25-406, Cambridge, MA 02139e-mail: ssocrate@mit.edu
Anastassia Paskaleva
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-347A, Cambridge, MA 02139e-mail: apaskal@alum.mit.edu
Michael House, M.D.
Maternal/Fetal Medicine,
Tufts Medical Center
, 800 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111e-mail: mhouse@tuftsmedicalcenter.org
J Biomech Eng. Feb 2010, 132(2): 021003 (15 pages)
Published Online: January 5, 2010
Article history
Received:
November 28, 2007
Revised:
May 29, 2009
Online:
January 5, 2010
Published:
January 5, 2010
Citation
Myers, K. M., Socrate, S., Paskaleva, A., and House, M. (January 5, 2010). "A Study of the Anisotropy and Tension/Compression Behavior of Human Cervical Tissue." ASME. J Biomech Eng. February 2010; 132(2): 021003. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3197847
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