HIGH FREQUENCY ACOUSTIC CHARACTERIZATION OF AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TISSUE

弹性纤维在正常组织功能中起着关键作用，其生物力学特性的年龄相关退行性改变严重影响心血管系统、肺和皮肤的动态功能。本研究旨在通过弥合整个组织和分子水平上已知的机械变化之间的差距，提供衰老对组织特性影响的重要信息。这将通过发展声学方法来表征软组织的机械特性来实现。通过使用频率范围为100 MHz - 1 GHz的高频声学显微镜，我们将获得在x - y平面上空间分辨率约为1微米的薄组织学切片的力学性能的空间分辨图。然后，这些信息将与从组织中提取的弹性纤维的特性变化相关联，并结合传统的生化、超微结构和蛋白质组学方法，阐明弹性纤维老化的致病机制。

Elastic fibres play a key role in normal tissue function, and age-related degenerative alterations in their biomechanical properties severely affect dynamic functions of the cardiovascular system, lungs and skin. This study aims to provide important information on the effects of ageing on the properties of tissue by bridging the gap between known mechanical changes at the whole tissue and molecular levels. This will be achieved through developing acoustic methods for characterising the mechanical properties of soft tissue. By using high frequency acoustic microscopy in the frequency range of 100 MHz - 1 GHz we will obtain spatially resolved maps of mechanical properties in thin histological sections with a spatial resolution in the x y plane of around 1 micron. This information will then be correlated with changes in the properties of elastic fibres extracted from tissue and combined with conventional biochemical, ultrastructural and proteomic approaches, to shed light on the causative mechanisms of elastic fibre ageing.