Rheometric studies on agarose Gel-A brain mimic material

Drug delivery in post operative brain tumor therapy is a challenge to medical fraternity as the blood brain barrier prevents the drugs to reach the required site at the required rate. New techniques of drug delivery are being proposed by many research workers and are being tried as in-vitro experiments in the laboratory. These experiments require brain tissues. Most of the initial experiments are done with animal brain tissues (mostly porcine) or artificial brain tissue mimicking materials. The most commonly used brain tissue mimicking material is the agarose gel.

The aim of the present study is to standardize the preparation of brain mimic material using the commercially available agarose gel powder. Agarose gel samples of different concentrations in water are prepared and their mechanical parameters, (storage shear modulus, loss shear modulus and complex shear modulus) are studied using Rotational Rheometer. The mechanical parameters are compared with those reported in the literature for porcine brain tissue and human brain tissue.