title: Altered mechanical behavior of epicardium under isothermal biaxial loading.
abstract: Most soft tissues that are treated clinically via heating experience multiaxial states of stress and strain in vivo and are subject to complex constraints during treatment. Remarkably, however, there are no prior data on changes in the multiaxial mechanical behavior of a collagenous tissue subjected to isometric constraints during heating. This paper presents the first biaxial stress-stretch data on a collagenous membrane (epicardium) before and after heating while subjected to various biaxial isometric constraints. It was found that isometric heating does not allow the increase in stiffness at low strains that occurs following isotonic heating. Moreover increasing the degree of stretch prior to heating increased the thermal stability of the tissue consistent with the concept that mechanical loading primarily affects the activation entropy, not the activation energy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3120, USA.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Humphrey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000379:methods; D002417:Cattle; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004548:Elasticity; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D010496:Pericardium / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology*