Medicine Service and Research Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Dermatology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, Nashville, TN, USA.
J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2024 Oct;158:106651. doi: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2024.106651. Epub 2024 Jul 2.
Quantitative assessment of skin mechanical properties can play a pivotal role in diagnosing and tracking various dermatological conditions. Myoton is a promising tool that rapidly and noninvasively measures five skin biomechanical parameters. Accurate interpretation of these parameters requires systematic in vitro testing with easy-to-fabricate, cost-effective skin-mimicking phantoms with controllable properties. In this study, we assessed the ability of phantoms made with 5% and 10% gelatin crosslinked with microbial transglutaminase (mTG) to mimic the human skin for Myoton measurements. We discovered that each of the five Myoton parameters displayed moderate to high correlations with shear elastic modulus of the phantoms. Furthermore, Myoton effectively tracked changes in the mechanical properties of these models over time. Additionally, we designed bilayer phantoms incorporating both dermis and subcutaneous tissue-mimicking layers. Myoton successfully distinguished changes in the mechanical properties of the bilayer phantoms due to the introduction of a stiff 2 mm top layer. We also found that 5% mTG-gelatin phantoms mimic Myoton measurements from healthy subjects and 10% phantoms mimic patients with sclerotic chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). Therefore, multi-layered mTG-gelatin models for skin and soft tissues can serve as standardized testbeds to study different sclerotic skin conditions in a systematic manner.
皮肤机械特性的定量评估在诊断和跟踪各种皮肤病方面起着至关重要的作用。Myoton 是一种很有前途的工具,它可以快速、非侵入式地测量五个皮肤生物力学参数。要准确解释这些参数,需要使用易于制造、成本效益高且具有可控特性的皮肤模拟体进行系统的体外测试。在这项研究中,我们评估了用 5%和 10%的明胶与微生物转谷氨酰胺酶交联制成的水凝胶体模模拟人体皮肤进行 Myoton 测量的能力。我们发现,Myoton 的五个参数中的每一个与水凝胶体模的剪切弹性模量都具有中等至高度的相关性。此外,Myoton 能够有效地跟踪这些模型的机械性能随时间的变化。此外,我们设计了双层水凝胶体模,其中包含真皮和皮下组织模拟层。Myoton 成功地区分了由于引入 2 毫米厚的硬上层而导致的双层水凝胶体模的机械性能变化。我们还发现,5%的 mTG-明胶水凝胶体模可以模拟健康受试者的 Myoton 测量值,而 10%的水凝胶体模可以模拟硬化性慢性移植物抗宿主病 (cGVHD) 患者的测量值。因此,用于皮肤和软组织的多层 mTG-明胶模型可以作为标准化的测试平台,系统地研究不同的硬化性皮肤疾病。