Hydration and Crosslinking Effects on the Elastic and Viscoelastic Properties of Collagen Scaffolds

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body. It plays critical roles in many supporting and connecting tissues such as tendon, ligament, bone, blood vessels, skin, etc. Collagen gels prepared from commercially available collagen solutions mimic the in vivo environment and have been widely used as three-dimensional (3-D) tissue scaffolds for cell culture. Collagen thin film is the dehydrated form of collagen gel. A number of studies have examined the cell-collagen thin film interactions (1, 2). As a biphasic material, collagen scaffolds contain a solid phase which represents by collagen fiber network and an interstitial fluid phase (3). This special structure makes collagen a viscoelastic material. Viscoelasticity is related to force or energy storage, transmission and dissipation in tissues and has a great influence on the growth and development of cells (4).