Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Skin Res Technol. 2011 May;17(2):149-59. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0846.2011.00471.x. Epub 2011 Jan 17.
The mechanical properties of skin, and its ability to resist a wide range of deformations, are mainly determined by the collagen network within the dermis.
In order to quantify the structure-function relationship of skin, quantitative data on collagen orientation are acquired in this study.
MATERIALS & METHODS: Saggital cryosections from the abdominal region of young pigs were stained with picrosirus red for collagen detection and images were acquired by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Spatial distributions of collagen orientation were determined using a structure-tensor approach. Orientation data were fitted to a mixture of two von Mises distributions.
It was observed that collagen is organised into large bundles in the reticular dermis that run obliquely between the epidermis to hypodermis along two predominant orientations.
This distinct lattice structure was apparent in all sections, regardless of the sectioning orientation. Based on our observations from CLSM images,we propose a conceptual model expressed in terms of a density distribution function to describe collagen orientation.
We demonstrate that two parameters of this distribution (the mean and spread parameter) may be directly determined using CLSM image analysis. An important advantage of this approach is that model parameters can be estimated directly from observable microstructural features.
皮肤的机械性能及其抵抗各种变形的能力主要取决于真皮中的胶原网络。
为了定量研究皮肤的结构-功能关系，本研究获取了胶原取向的定量数据。
从小猪腹部切取矢状冷冻切片，用 picrosirus 红对胶原进行染色，并通过共聚焦激光扫描显微镜（CLSM）获取图像。使用结构张量方法确定胶原取向的空间分布。取向数据拟合到两个 von Mises 分布的混合物中。
观察到胶原在网状真皮中组织成大束，沿两个主要方向斜向从表皮延伸到皮下组织。
无论切片方向如何，这种明显的晶格结构在所有切片中都很明显。基于我们从 CLSM 图像中的观察，我们提出了一个用密度分布函数表示的概念模型来描述胶原取向。
我们证明可以使用 CLSM 图像分析直接确定该分布的两个参数（均值和扩展参数）。这种方法的一个重要优点是，可以直接从可观察的微观结构特征估计模型参数。
