Cranial dura mater is a dense interwoven vascularized connective tissue that helps regulate neurocranial remodeling by responding to strains from the growing brain. Previous ex vivo experimentation has failed to account for the role of prestretch in the mechanical behavior of the dura. Here we aim to estimate the prestretch in mouse cranial dura mater and determine its dependency on direction and age. We performed transverse and longitudinal incisions in parietal dura excised from newborn (day \(\sim\)4) and mature (12 weeks) mice and calculated the ex vivo normalized incision opening (measured width over length). Then, similar incisions were simulated under isotropic stretching within Abaqus/Standard. Finally, prestretch was estimated by comparing the ex vivo and in silico normalized openings. There were no significant differences between the neonatal and adult mice when comparing cuts in the same direction, but adult mice were found to have significantly greater stretch in the anterior–posterior direction than in the medial–lateral direction, while neonatal dura was essentially isotropic. Additionally, our simulations show that increasing curvature impacts the incision opening, indicating that flat in silico models may overestimate prestretch.

颅骨硬脑膜是一种致密交织的血管结缔组织，通过响应大脑生长的压力来帮助调节神经颅骨重塑。先前的离体实验未能解释预拉伸在硬脑膜机械行为中的作用。在这里，我们的目标是估计小鼠颅骨硬脑膜的预拉伸并确定其对方向和年龄的依赖性。我们对新生（第 4天）和成熟（12 周）小鼠的顶叶硬脑膜进行横向和纵向切口，并计算离体标准化切口开口（测量宽度与长度之比）。然后，在 Abaqus/Standard 内的各向同性拉伸下模拟类似的切口。最后，通过比较离体和计算机标准化开口来估计预拉伸。当比较同一方向的切口时，新生小鼠和成年小鼠之间没有显着差异，但发现成年小鼠前后方向的拉伸明显大于内外方向的拉伸，而新生小鼠的硬脑膜基本上是各向同性的。此外，我们的模拟表明，增加的曲率会影响切口开口，表明计算机模型中的平面可能会高估预拉伸。