Interaction of micron and nano-sized particles with cells of the dura mater.

Intervertebral total disc replacements (TDR) are used in the treatment of degenerative spinal disc disease. There are, however, concerns that they may be subject to long-term failure due to wear. The adverse effects of TDR wear have the potential to manifest in the dura mater and surrounding tissues.

Poisson's ratio and strain rate dependency of the constitutive behavior of spinal dura mater.

Knowledge of the mechanical behavior of spinal dura mater is important for a number of applications including the experimental and computational modeling of physiological phenomena and spinal cord trauma. However, mechanical characterization of dura mater is relatively sparse and is further compounded by the use of the tangent modulus as the sole measure of stiffness. This study aims to provide a more complete description of the mechanical properties of spinal dura mater, including the effect of strain rate.