Biomechanical and neurological response of the spinal cord of a puppy to uniaxial tension

An in-vivo experimental method was developed to measure the stress-strain relationship of a spinal cord segment of anesthetized puppies. A pseudo Young’s modulus was defined for the linear region followed by a nonlinear rheological behavior for finite strain. Both the sensory response and motor function of the puppies were fully recovered within 5 days after the spinal cord segment in the first lumbar region was elongated once by 50 percent or less. The usefulness of the in-vivo experiments was further elaborated by demonstrating the large artifacts that could be associated in an in-vitro experiment.