title: Nanoscale viscoelasticity of extracellular matrix proteins in soft tissues: A multiscale approach.
abstract: It is hypothesized that the bulk viscoelasticity of soft tissues is determined by two length-scale-dependent mechanisms: the time-dependent response of the extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins at the nanometer scale and the biophysical interactions between the ECM solid structure and interstitial fluid at the micrometer scale. The latter is governed by poroelasticity theory assuming free motion of the interstitial fluid within the porous ECM structure. In a recent study (Heris, H.K., Miri, A.K., Tripathy, U., Barthelat, F., Mongeau, L., 2013. J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. Mater.), atomic force microscopy was used to measure the response of porcine vocal folds to a creep loading and a 50-nm sinusoidal oscillation. A constitutive model was calibrated and verified using a finite element model to accurately predict the nanoscale viscoelastic moduli of ECM. A generally good correlation was obtained between the predicted variation of the viscoelastic moduli with depth and that of hyaluronic acids in vocal fold tissue. We conclude that hyaluronic acids may regulate vocal fold viscoelasticity. The proposed methodology offers a characterization tool for biomaterials used in vocal fold augmentations.
authors: Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0C3. Electronic address: amir.miriramsheh@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors: Amir K
authors: AK
authors: Miri
authors: Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0C3.
authors: Hossein K
authors: HK
authors: Heris
authors: Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0C3.
authors: Luc
authors: L
authors: Mongeau
authors: Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0C3.
authors: Farhad
authors: F
authors: Javid
mesh_terms: D004548:Elasticity; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D008422:Materials Testing; D049329:Nanostructures; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins
keywords: Extracellular matrix proteins; Indentation; Poroelasticity; Viscoelasticity; Vocal folds