Biomechanical Modeling and Characterization of Kidney Tissue Surrogates

The kidney tissue is one of the important functional tissues of the human abdomen, but its biomechanics have not been extensively studied due to biosafety and ethical considerations associated with testing of cadaveric samples. In the present experimental study, novel surrogates were developed with a low-priced and castable polymeric material framework to mimic the mechanical properties of the kidney tissue. The candidate samples were fabricated by arbitrarily varying the composition of the four-part silicone-based polymeric material and tested uniaxially under tensile loading conditions. The uniaxial tensile trials were carried out at different strain rates to quantify the effect of varying strain rates on the biomechanical behavior of the tissue surrogates. The results of the uniaxially testing were assessed with literature study to determine the polymeric compositions imitating the mechanical properties of the human kidney. The mechanical behavior of the Mooney–Rivlin and Yeoh hyperelastic curve fit models were used for evaluating the non-linear mechanical behavior of the kidney tissue surrogates. To date, there are no kidney tissue surrogates reported in the literature mimicking the realistic mechanical properties of natural kidney tissue. The novel surrogates for kidney tissue exhibiting precise biomechanical properties would be indispensable for surgical training and making medical models for educational purposes.