title: Estimating the mechanical properties of retinal tissue using contact angle measurements of a spreading droplet.
abstract: When a drop of liquid is placed on the surface of a soft material, the surface deformation and the rate of spreading of the triple contact point is dependent on the mechanical properties of the substrate. This study seeks to use drop spreading behavior to infer the mechanical properties of soft biological materials. As an illustration of the value of this technique we have compared the spreading behavior of a liquid droplet on two viscoelastic, soft materials, namely, an elastomer and a low concentration agar gel. The ratio of the mechanical properties of these soft materials obtained in this way is confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) nanoindentation. By comparing the spreading behavior of a liquid on the retina with that of the same liquid on each of two viscoelastic materials, we can then estimate the elastic moduli of the retina: an estimate that is extremely difficult to carry out using AFM.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials Engineering RKT Centre, School of Engineering, Design and Technology, University of Bradford, Bradford, United Kingdom. c.grant@bradford.ac.uk
authors.forename: Colin A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Twigg
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Savage
authors.forename: W Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Woon
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Greig
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004548:Elasticity; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods; D012160:Retina / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013499:Surface Properties; D013552:Swine