Abstract
The mechanical behavior of cells is connected to cell functions involving the cytoskeleton, like contractility, motility, and proliferation, which are essential for the skin’s homeostasis.
Changes in mechanical properties are an important characteristic of the aging process of the human skin. Studies attribute these changes predominately to the extracellular matrix (ECM) due to its altered collagen and elastin organization and density. Nevertheless, individual skin cells can also show significant changes in stiffness, which can be measured by sophisticated tools like the laser-based optical cell stretcher that allows examining the viscoelastic biomechanics of isolated cells. As compared to other techniques for single cell elasticity measurements such as scanning-force microscopy (SFM), an optical stretcher enables the measurement of more than a hundred cells per hour providing advanced statistical results.
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Abbreviations
- ECM:
-
Extracellular matrix
- SFM:
-
Scanning-force microscopy
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Schulze, C., Jaspers, S. (2015). Measuring Skin Cell Stiffness. In: Humbert, P., Maibach, H., Fanian, F., Agache, P. (eds) Agache’s Measuring the Skin. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26594-0_147-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26594-0_147-1
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