Figure 4.
Strain fields in the tissue-engineered constructs during cyclic loading were nonuniform. Strains in the loading direction (Eyy) varied with spatial position and approached −0.040 typically within the agarose construct. The magnitude of deformation was attributed to the lack of integration at the agarose-cartilage boundary and the height of the hydrogel construct compared to the surrounding cartilage in the undeformed state (solid white arrows) (see Discussion). The lack of integration was in particular pronounced with increasing applied load in the magnitude of Exy in (A).