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Automated Estimation of Collagen Fibre Dispersion in the Dermis and its Contribution to the Anisotropic Behaviour of Skin

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Abstract

Collagen fibres play an important role in the mechanical behaviour of many soft tissues. Modelling of such tissues now often incorporates a collagen fibre distribution. However, the availability of accurate structural data has so far lagged behind the progress of anisotropic constitutive modelling. Here, an automated process is developed to identify the orientation of collagen fibres using inexpensive and relatively simple techniques. The method uses established histological techniques and an algorithm implemented in the MATLAB image processing toolbox. It takes an average of 15 s to evaluate one image, compared to several hours if assessed visually. The technique was applied to histological sections of human skin with different Langer line orientations and a definite correlation between the orientation of Langer lines and the preferred orientation of collagen fibres in the dermis \((p<0.001, R^{2}= 0.95)\) was observed. The structural parameters of the Gasser–Ogden–Holzapfel (GOH) model were all successfully evaluated. The mean dispersion factor for the dermis was \(\kappa = 0.1404 \pm 0.0028.\) The constitutive parameters μ, k 1 and k 2 were evaluated through physically-based, least squares curve-fitting of experimental test data. The values found for μ, k 1 and k 2 were 0.2014 MPa, 243.6 and 0.1327, respectively. Finally, the above model was implemented in ABAQUS/Standard and a finite element (FE) computation was performed of uniaxial extension tests on human skin. It is expected that the results of this study will assist those wishing to model skin, and that the algorithm described will be of benefit to those who wish to evaluate the collagen dispersion of other soft tissues.

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Notes

  1. Out-of-plane fibres manifest themselves as circular areas. This condition was introduced to exclude out-of-plane fibres from the analysis. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine the sensitivity of the algorithm to varying the area and eccentricity criteria. It was found that a ±10% change in both the area and eccentricity criteria led to a ±1% change in the mean orientation. This indicates that the selected criteria do not significantly affect the result of mean orientation. For this study it was specified that in-plane fibres must have an eccentricity larger than 0.7 and an area greater than 1000 pixels, which for our images, captured at 5×, corresponds to 5 \(\mu \hbox{m}^{2}.\)

  2. It should be noted here that these results have been obtained using the mle method described in “Fibre Dispersion” section. An alternative, but less reliable method exists whereby data is clustered into two intersecting fibre families using an agglomerative clustering algorithm such as was performed in Ní Annaidh et al.20

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge gratefully the advice and assistance of Mr. Ciaran Driver, Dr. Michael Curtis and Prof. Marie Cassidy, of the Office of the State Pathologist (Ireland), in the area of histology. This research was supported by a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme, awarded to MD; by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology; by the Office of the State Pathologist (Irish Department of Justice and Equality); and by the Ile-de-France region. G.S. is supported by the PRIN 2009 project “Matematica e meccanica dei sistemi biologici e dei tessuti molli”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Aisling Ní Annaidh, Michel Destrade & Michael D. Gilchrist

  2. UPMC, Univ Paris 6, UMR 7190, Institut Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, Boîte courrier 161-2, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France

    Aisling Ní Annaidh & Corrado Maurini

  3. CNRS, UMR 7190, Institut Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, Boîte courrier 161-2, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France

    Aisling Ní Annaidh & Corrado Maurini

  4. Université de Lyon, 69622, Lyon, France

    Karine Bruyère & Melanie Otténio

  5. IFSTTAR, LBMC, UMR_T9406, 69675, Bron, France

    Karine Bruyère & Melanie Otténio

  6. Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France

    Karine Bruyère & Melanie Otténio

  7. School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Michel Destrade

  8. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 06125, Perugia, Italy

    Giuseppe Saccomandi

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  1. Aisling Ní Annaidh
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  2. Karine Bruyère
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Correspondence to Aisling Ní Annaidh.

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Associate Editor Jane Grande-Allen oversaw the review of this article.

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Ní Annaidh, A., Bruyère, K., Destrade, M. et al. Automated Estimation of Collagen Fibre Dispersion in the Dermis and its Contribution to the Anisotropic Behaviour of Skin. Ann Biomed Eng 40, 1666–1678 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-012-0542-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-012-0542-3

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