Characterization of thermomechanical behavior of skin tissue:Ⅱ.Viscoelastic behavior / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective To test the hypothesis that collagen is a significant determinant of skin viscoelasticity,with particular attention paid to the thermomechanical properties of skin under dynamic loading.Methods Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to detect the denaturation of dermal collagen and assess its thermal stability.The DSC results obtained with various heating rates were used to derive the Arrhenius parameters in burn damage integration,which were subsequently used to calculate the degree of denatured collagen in the skin.The dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) was employed to evaluate the changes in skin viscoelastic properties as a function of temperature and collagen damage.Results The results showed remarkable changes in storage modulus,possibly due to the release of water,whilst there was no significant change in loss factor.Conclusion These results suggest that at a fixed frequency the denaturation of collagen molecules has a large effect on the viscoelastic behavior of skin tissue.