ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1701754
Bioinspired 3D Braided Artificial Ligament with Human-like Mechanical Properties and Self-Healing Capability
Provisionally accepted
- Jilin University Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering Ministry of Education, Changchun, China
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Joint injuries, among the most prevalent human musculoskeletal disorders, are frequently accompanied by soft tissue damage. Restoring ligament integrity is a clinically effective and cost-efficient strategy for reconstructing joint function, with applications spanning both clinical recovery and advanced assistive rehabilitation devices. However, artificial ligaments face a critical challenge: reconciling robust biomechanical performance with intrinsic self-healing capability— particularly under cyclic loading and accidental overload conditions. This study presents a self-healing artificial ligament fabricated via the braiding of shape memory alloy (SMA) wires with fishing lines. This design mimics both the hierarchical structure and J-shaped mechanical response of natural ligaments. We systematically investigated the effect of SMA wire count on the modulus and energy dissipation of the artificial ligaments, ultimately selecting the dual-SMA-wire configuration for detailed characterization of rate-dependent behavior and stress relaxation properties. Electrothermal recovery experiments were conducted to quantify the maximum contraction rate under varying pre-strains and power inputs. After 1000 seconds of cyclic loading, the self-healing ligament exhibited significantly reduced stress relaxation, retaining approximately 73% of its initial stress — compared to only 37% retention in conventional artificial ligaments without SMA wires. Proof-of-concept trials using an artificial hip joint demonstrated enhanced joint stability following SMA activation, with post-recovery kinematics restoring 95% of the initial joint laxity. This work aims to substantially improve the performance and longevity of artificial ligaments, addressing key limitations of existing ligament materials and providing a promising solution for both clinical applications and rehabilitation devices in joint injury treatment.
Keywords: bioinspired, Artificial ligament, self-healing, Shape memory alloy, Braiding
Received: 09 Sep 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Teng, Li, Zhao, Wang, Ren, Xie, Wang, Su and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kunyang Wang, kywang@jlu.edu.cn
Lei Ren, iren@jlu.edu.cn
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