AgeDependent Changes in Material Properties （AgeDependent材料特性的变化）.pdf

JOURNAL OF NEUROTRAUMA Volume 20, Number 11, 2003 © Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Age-Dependent Changes in Material Properties of the Brain and Braincase of the Rat AMIT GEFEN,1 NURIT GEFEN,1 QILIANG ZHU,1 RAMESH RAGHUPATHI,2 and SUSAN S. MARGULIES1 ABSTRACT Clinical and biomechanical evidence indicates that mechanisms and pathology of head injury in in- fants and young children may be different from those in adults. Biomechanical computer-based modeling, which can be used to provide insight into the thresholds for traumatic tissue injury, re- quires data on material properties of the brain, skull, and sutures that are specific for the pediatric population. In this study, brain material properties were determined for rats at postnatal days (PND) 13, 17, 43, and 90, and skull/suture composite (braincase) properties were determined at PND 13, 17, and 43. Controlled 1 mm indentation of a force probe into the brain was used to measure naive, non-preconditioned (NPC) and preconditioned (PC) instantaneous (G ) and long-term (G ) shear i ` moduli of brain tissue both in situ and in vitro. Brains at 13 and 17 PND exhibited statistically in- distinguishable shear moduli, as did brains at 43 and 90 PND. However, the immature (average of 13 and 17 PND) rat brain (Gi 5 3336 Pa NPC, 1754 Pa PC; G` 5 786 Pa NPC, 626 Pa PC) was sig- nificantly stiffer (p , 0.05) than the mature (average of 43 and 90 PND) brains (Gi 5 1721 Pa NPC, 1232 Pa PC; G` 5 508 Pa NPC, 398 Pa PC). A “reverse engineering” finite element model approach, which simulated the indentation of the force probe into the intact braincase, was used to estimate the effe