Fracture toughness of human amniotic membranes

Amnion is a membrane that surrounds and structurally protects the developing fetus during pregnancy. The rupture of amniotic membranes prior to both normal and preterm deliveries involves stretch forces acting on a biochemically triggered weak zone of the membranes. Fracture toughness is an important mechanical property describing how the membranes containing a defect resist fracture, but this property has never been investigated in amniotic membranes. In this work, the fracture toughness of many samples cut from four pieces of amniotic membrane from different mothers was examined by uniaxial and pure shear (mode I) fracture tests. The measurement was checked for dependence on the sample geometry and notch length. Results from the uniaxial tensile test show J-shaped stress-strain curves and confirm that the amniotic membrane is a nonlinear material. The measured fracture toughness of four amniotic membranes ranged from 0.96 ± 0.11 to 1.83 ± 0.18 kJ m-2. Despite considering the effect of the presence of the defect on mechanical property measurement, similar fracture behaviour was observed for pre-notched and unnotched specimens, indicating that the membranes were extremely tolerant to defects. This defect-tolerant characteristic provides insight into the understanding of fetal membrane rupture.