Food Colloids and Bioprocessing Group, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
Institute of Functional Surfaces, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Nov 4;12(44):49371-49385. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c12925. Epub 2020 Oct 26.
Oral friction on the tongue surface plays a pivotal role in mechanics of food transport, speech, sensing, and hedonic responses. The highly specialized biophysical features of the human tongue such as micropapillae-dense topology, optimum wettability, and deformability present architectural challenges in designing artificial tongue surfaces, and the absence of such a biomimetic surface impedes the fundamental understanding of tongue-food/fluid interaction. Herein, we fabricate for the first time, a 3D soft biomimetic surface that replicates the topography and wettability of a real human tongue. The 3D-printed fabrication contains a Poisson point process-based (random) papillae distribution and is employed to micromold soft silicone surfaces with wettability modifications. We demonstrate the unprecedented capability of these surfaces to replicate the theoretically defined and simulated collision probability of papillae and to closely resemble the tribological performances of human tongue masks. These de novo biomimetic surfaces pave the way for accurate quantification of mechanical interactions in the soft oral mucosa.
舌面的口腔摩擦在食物运输、言语、感知和愉悦反应的力学中起着关键作用。人类舌头具有高度专业化的生物物理特征，如微乳头状密集拓扑结构、最佳润湿性和可变形性，这给设计人工舌面带来了结构上的挑战，而缺乏这种仿生表面则阻碍了对舌-食物/流体相互作用的基本理解。在这里，我们首次制造了一种 3D 软仿生表面，复制了真实人类舌头的形貌和润湿性。3D 打印制造包含基于泊松点过程的（随机）乳突分布，并用于微成型具有润湿性修饰的软硅树脂表面。我们展示了这些表面复制乳突理论定义和模拟的碰撞概率的前所未有的能力，并与人工舌面具的摩擦学性能非常相似。这些全新的仿生表面为准确量化软口腔黏膜中的机械相互作用铺平了道路。
