Effect of age on the biomechanical properties of porcine LCL

Singh, Narendra (author), Trajkovski, Jovan (author), Rodriguez Matas, Jose Felix (author), Kunc, Robert (author)

The Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL), one of the four major ligaments in the knee joint, resides on the outer aspect of the knee. It forms a vital connection between the femur and the fibula. The LCL’s primary role is to provide stability against Varus forces, safeguarding the knee from undue rotation and tibial displacement. Uniaxial mechanical testing was conducted on the dog bone (DB) samples in this study. The porcine of different ages, from 3 months to 48 months (4 years) old, were used to analyse the effect of age. A constant head speed of 200 mm/s was applied throughout the tests to mimic strain–stress and damage responses at an initial strain rate of 13.3/s. The mechanical properties of LCL were evaluated, with a specific focus on the effect of age. The LMM (Linear Mixed Model) analysis revealed a marginally significant positive slope for Young’s modulus (p = 0.0512) and a significant intercept (p = 0.0016); for Maximum Stress, a negative slope (p = 0.0346) and significant intercept (p < 0.0001); while Maximum Stretch showed a significant negative slope (p = 0.0007) and intercept (p < 0.0001), indicating the muscle reduces compliance and load-bearing capacity with age.

• Language: English
• Keywords: porcine ligaments, tension tests, age-related changes, Lateral Collateral Ligaments, biomechanics
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 12, no. 1, art. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-166278
• UDC: 531/533:61
• ISSN on article: 2306-5354
• DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering12010005
• COBISS.SI-ID: 220755715
• Publication date in RUL: 31.12.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Bioengineering
• Shortened title: Bioengineering
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2306-5354
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523002649

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0109
• Name: Modeliranje v tehniki in medicini