Tissue mechanics

We aim to review the last achievements of continuum models and numerical approaches on adaptation processes in biological tissues. In this review, we are looking, in particular, at growth in terms of changes of density and/or volume as, e.g., in collagen remodeling, wound healing, arterial thickening, etc. 

We demonstrate that the macroscopic response of the tissue can be reproduced by just introducing the underlying mechanical and structural features of the micro-constituents, improving in a fundamental manner previous attempts in the mechanical characterization of soft biological tissues. 

This work uses the microsphere-based approach to take into account the micro mechanics involved in biological fibered structures regarding both their passive behavior and the reorientation of their micro constituents. Moreover, the macro behavior of the material as a whole is obtained by means of homogenizing the underlying micro response. We associate the orientation space of the integration directions to the physical space of micro-fibrils. To approximate the directional distribution of the fibrils within each fiber bundle, a Bingham probability orientation density function is introduced into the Helmholtz energy function. 

This work uses the microsphere-based approach to take into account the micro mechanics involved in biological fibered structures regarding both their passive behavior and the reorientation of their micro constituents. Moreover, the macro behavior of the material as a whole is obtained by means of homogenizing the underlying micro response. We associate the orientation space of the integration directions to the physical space of micro-fibrils. To approximate the directional distribution of the fibrils within each fiber bundle, a Bingham probability orientation density function is introduced into the Helmholtz energy function. With

The goal of this work is to study the collagen turnover in the arterial tissue of hypertensive patients through a coupled computational mechano-chemical model. 

The aim of this study is to collect quantitative collagen organization as well as mechanical properties to facilitate structural constitutive models for the porcine carotid artery.This helps the understanding of the mechanics of swine carotid arteries, being a standard in clinical hypothesis testing, in endovascular preclinical trials for example. 

 Here we developed a model predicting local tissue mechanics, which induces non-affine deformations of the tissue components. Using the mouse hippocampus and cerebellum as model systems, we show that considering individual tissue components alone, as identified by immunohistochemistry, is not sufficient to reproduce the local mechanical properties of CNS tissue. Our results suggest that brain tissue shows a universal response to applied forces that depends not only on the amount and stiffness of the individual tissue constituents but also on the way how they assemble.