https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2018-00104-5
Regular Article
Comparative quasi-static mechanical characterization of fresh and stored porcine trachea specimens
1
Surfaces, Microstructure and Fracture Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge,
JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0HE, UK
2
The Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London,
London
SW7 2AZ, UK
3
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge,
Madingley Road,
Cambridge
CB3 0ES, UK
4
Institute of Shock Physics, Department of Physics, Imperial College London,
London
SW7 2AZ, UK
5
Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin,
TX
78712, USA
a e-mail: kb518@cam.ac.uk
Received:
31
October
2017
Published online: 10
September
2018
Tissues of the upper airways of critically ill patients are particularly vulnerable to mechanical damage associated with the use of ventilators. Ventilation is known to disrupt the structural integrity of respiratory tissues and their function. This damage contributes to the vulnerability of these tissues to infection. We are currently developing tissue models of damage and infection to the upper airways. As part of our studies, we have compared how tissue storage conditions affect mechanical properties of excised respiratory tissues using a quasi-static platform. Data presented here show considerable differences in mechanical responses of stored specimens compared to freshly excised specimens. These data indicate that implementation of storage and maintenance procedures that minimize rapid degradation of tissue structure are essential for retaining the material properties in our tissue trauma models.
© The Author(s) 2018
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.