Measuring the biomechanical properties of the mouse sclera is of great interest: altered scleral properties are features of many common ocular pathologies, and the mouse is a powerful tool for studying genetic factors in disease, yet the small size of the mouse eye and its thin sclera make experimental measurements in the mouse difficult. Here, a poroelastic material model is used to analyse data from unconfined compression testing of both pig and mouse sclera, and the tensile modulus, compressive modulus and permeability of the sclera are obtained at three levels of compressive strain. Values for all three properties were comparable to previously reported values measured by tests specific for each property. The repeatability of the approach was evaluated using a test–retest experimental paradigm on pig sclera, and tensile stiffness and permeability measurements were found to be reasonably repeatable. The intrinsic material properties of the mouse sclera were measured for the first time. Tensile stiffness and permeability of the sclera in both species were seen to be dependent on the state of compressive strain. We conclude that unconfined compression testing of sclera, when analysed with poroelastic theory, is a powerful tool to phenotype mouse scleral changes in future genotype–phenotype association studies.

中文翻译：

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表征巩膜拉伸、压缩和液压特性的双相方法

测量小鼠巩膜的生物力学特性引起了人们的极大兴趣：巩膜特性的改变是许多常见眼部病变的特征，而小鼠是研究疾病遗传因素的有力工具，但小鼠眼睛的尺寸较小且巩膜较薄使小鼠的实验测量变得困难。这里，使用多孔弹性材料模型来分析猪和小鼠巩膜无侧限压缩测试的数据，并在三个压缩应变水平下获得巩膜的拉伸模量、压缩模量和渗透性。所有三个属性的值与之前报告的通过针对每个属性的特定测试测量的值相当。使用猪巩膜上的测试-再测试实验范式评估了该方法的可重复性，并且发现拉伸刚度和渗透性测量具有合理的可重复性。首次测量了小鼠巩膜的内在材料特性。两个物种巩膜的拉伸刚度和渗透性均取决于压缩应变状态。我们得出的结论是，当用多孔弹性理论进行分析时，巩膜无侧限压缩测试是未来基因型-表型关联研究中对小鼠巩膜变化进行表型分析的有力工具。