NANOINDENTATION OF SOFT TISSUES AND OTHER BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS - Nanoindentation with Biological Applications - page 294

with spatially resolved chemical and structural information, engineers
and materials scientists hope to learn to design new composite materials
with enhanced materials properties at the macroscale.
3.4 . Summary
The studies of biological materials outlined above highlight the
advantages of submicrometer resolution mechanical testing capabilities
in the characterization of natural materials, many of which have features
with small dimensions or hierarchical structures of interest to researchers.
The tissue characterization studies have implications for improved
understanding of structure-property relationships in healthy, diseased,
damaged, and repairing tissues. This information may aid in the
development of diagnostic tools, disease treatments, and replacement
tissues. Studies of plants and other biological materials reveal valuable
information about structure-property relationships in a variety of natural
composite materials, which may in turn help engineers design synthetic
materials with comparable properties. While the nanoindentation studies
described above have helped to answer many scientific questions, they
have also served to uncover the many challenges associated with
adapting the nanoindentation technique to the study of soft tissues and
other biological materials. These challenges, as well as some of the
methods currently being used to overcome those challenges, will be
discussed in detail in the next section.
4. Challenges Associated with Nanoindentation of Biological
Materials
While nanoindentation has been successfully utilized to characterize a
wide variety of biological materials, many challenges have been faced in
adapting a mechanical testing system designed for characterization of
engineering materials like metals and ceramics to the study of compliant,
hydrated biological materials. In addition, there are still many areas
where improvement in indentation methods or instrumentation would
greatly enhance the field of indentation of biological materials.