Mechanical Properties of Aging Soft Tissues

Book Preface

Age-related changes in the mechanical properties of soft tissue has growing importance in medicine. With advances in clinical care, management of chronic conditions, and an increase in life expectancy, the quality of life of aging populations is increasingly determined by the accompanying changes that occur to the mechanical properties of tissues such as blood vessels and lungs. Degradation and mechanical failure of these tissues has a profound effect on human morbidity and mortality. Soft tissues have complex and intricate architectures that relate their physical and mechanical properties to those of their constituent structural components such as collagen and elastin [1]. Thus, age-related changes in mechanical behavior will be related to changes in the properties and relative quantities of the tissue microstructural components.

In addition, it is now well established that a number of clinical conditions, e.g., diabetes mellitus [6] and environmental exposures such as ultraviolet radiation and smoking [8], result in changes to tissue mechanical properties that mirror those found with increasing age. Hence, a key challenge for the future will be a better understanding of how changes in the mechanical properties of tissue with increasing age relate to similar changes in other pathologies. In this collection of articles, we present an overview of the current level of understanding of how the mechanical properties of soft tissue change with age in a number of important areas of the human body.