The most common method to study the mechanical behavior of soft tissue is to test animal specimens, which should be prepared as soon as possible after the death to avoid biological deterioration effects such as rigor mortis. Freezing and cryo-preservation could allow extending the time between procurement and implantation. From a mechanical perspective, tissue preservation could influence mechanical testing results. Therefore, this study focuses on the influence of cryo-preserved samples on their mechanical behavior, especially at the rupture. In order to analyze this aspect, two tests were performed on the porcine abdominal wall. A tensile test to study the elastic behavior of samples and the tensile strength until rupture. A peeling test to more finely investigate the cohesion between muscle fibers. No statistical difference could be observed following tensile test. However, peeling tests between cryo-preserved and control samples showed a clear statistical difference with a p-value of 0.0097 for Gp. Indeed, energy release rate was higher for the Cryo-preserve group than the Control group with Gp = 0.36 ± 0.07 N/mm vs 0.26 ± 0.10 N/mm. This difference suggests that the characterization of rupture energies for muscular tissue should be done without having frozen the samples, even with a cryopreservative agent. These results could also indicate that even if the rupture mode is the same between mechanical tests, a different rupture direction could imply different mechanical preservations for soft tissues. This study could help to understand the difficult mechanical preservation of soft tissues, especially on the rupture behavior. Future studies on skeletal muscles will be necessary to compare our results, especially in peeling.
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