Tissue Mechanics
Students learn the importance of tissue mechanicsCopyright 2007 The Structures of Life, National Institutes of Health http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/structlife/chapter1.html
Students reflect on their experiences making silly putty (the previous hands-on activity in the unit), especially why changing the borax concentration alters the mechanical properties of silly putty and how this pertains to tissue mechanics. Students learn why engineers must understand tissue mechanics in order to design devices that will be implanted or used inside bodies, to study pathologies of tissues and how this alters tissue function, and to design prosthetics. Finally, students learn about collagen, elastin and proteoglycans and their roles in giving body tissues their unique functions. This prepares them for the culminating design-build-test activity of the unit. > Image caption: Collagen is one example of a protein found in body tissues that alters the mechanical properties of the tissue to achieve its specific function.
Engineers who design devices that will be implanted or used in human bodies must understand tissue mechanics to ensure that their devices restore function to injured or diseased tissues without harming surrounding tissues. Engineers also use tissue mechanics to study pathologies and their effect on tissue functionality. They use this knowledge to design devices that restore functionality to diseased tissues. Finally, engineers who design prosthetics use tissue mechanics to study the forces that biological arms, legs, hands or feet normally withstood and the previous range of motion, so as to design devices that restore those functions.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Explain, on a molecular level, how silly putty is formed and how this relates to tissue mechanics.
- Give three examples of why it is important for engineers to understand tissue mechanics.
- Describe the importance of collagen in human tissues and give an example of a tissue that uses collagen to function correctly.
- Describe the importance of elastin in human tissues and give an example of a tissue that uses elastin to function correctly.
- Describe the importance of proteoglycans in human tissues and give an example of a tissue that uses proteoglycans to function correctly.