Characterizaton of the mesoscale elastic and toughness properties of soft biological tissues

需要一个专用的微压痕系统来支持组织生物力学研究。该设备允许表征各种软生物组织，包括血管组织，肌肉骨骼组织和喉部组织。特别是，该系统将允许在与几个细胞聚集（超细胞尺度）相对应的维度上表征组织。这个尺度非常重要，因为它与器官破坏（疾病）的初始表现相对应。有趣的是，对于生物软组织的宏观尺度（> ~ 1cm）表征已经有了很大的努力，并且正在进行微观尺度（< 10 ~ 100微米）和纳米尺度（< 1微米）的研究，但很少有人关注尺度和中观尺度（> ~ 100微米和< 1毫米）之间的特征。所要求的系统专门配备了用于执行这些中间尺度组织表征的专用模块，用于弹性，划痕，磨损和硬度测试。该设备将能够表征动脉粥样硬化斑块成分（纤维帽、内含物）、喉病理结构（息肉、结节、癌症）、受损软骨组织（胶原纤维束）和胚胎血管结构。这项研究将作为基于利用这些中尺度特性的新诊断工具的基础。

A dedicated micro-indentation system is requested to support tissue biomechanical research. The equipment allows for the characterization of various soft biological tissues including vascular tissue, musculoskeletal tissue and laryngeal tissue. In particular, the system will allow to characterize tissue at a dimension that corresponds to the agglomeration of a few cells (supra cellular scale). This scale is very important as it corresponds to the initial manifestation of organ disruption (disease). Interestingly, there has been significant efforts for the macroscale (> 1 cm) characterization of soft biological tissue and there is ongoing research for the micro scale (< 10- 100 microns) and nanoscale (< 1 micron) but very few attention had been given for the in between scale or meso scale (> 100 microns and < 1 millimeter). The requested system is specifically equipped for performing these intermediate scales tissue characterization with dedicated modules for elasticity, scratch, wear and hardness tests. The equipment will enable the characterization of atherosclerotic plaque constituents (fibrous cap, inclusions), laryngeal pathological structures (polyps, nodules, cancers), damaged cartilage tissue (collagen fibers bundles) and embryonic vascular structures. This research will serve as the basis for new diagnostic tools based exploiting these meso scale properties.