title: Micromechanical Modeling Study of Mechanical Inhibition of Enzymatic Degradation of Collagen Tissues.
abstract: This study investigates how the collagen fiber structure influences the enzymatic degradation of collagen tissues. We developed a micromechanical model of a fibrous collagen tissue undergoing enzymatic degradation based on two central hypotheses. The collagen fibers are crimped in the undeformed configuration. Enzymatic degradation is an energy activated process and the activation energy is increased by the axial strain energy density of the fiber. We determined the intrinsic degradation rate and characteristic energy for mechanical inhibition from fibril-level degradation experiments and applied the parameters to predict the effect of the crimped fiber structure and fiber properties on the degradation of bovine cornea and pericardium tissues under controlled tension. We then applied the model to examine the effect of the tissue stress state on the rate of tissue degradation and the anisotropic fiber structures that developed from enzymatic degradation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Theresa K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Tonge
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jeffrey W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ruberti
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Electronic address: vicky.nguyen@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Thao D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Nguyen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002417:Cattle; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D003315:Cornea / Q000378:metabolism; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008954:Models, Biological; D010496:Pericardium / Q000378:metabolism; D059748:Proteolysis; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes; D003094:Collagen