In vivo measurement of skin surface strain and sub-surface layer deformation induced by natural tissue stretching

Stratum corneum and epidermal layers change in terms of thickness and roughness with gender, age and anatomical site. Knowledge of the mechanical and tribological properties of skin associated with these structural changes are needed to aid in the design of exoskeletons, prostheses, orthotics, body...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials Vol. 62; pp. 556 - 569
Main Authors:	Maiti, Raman, Gerhardt, Lutz-Christian, Lee, Zing S., Byers, Robert A., Woods, Daniel, Sanz-Herrera, José A., Franklin, Steve E., Lewis, Roger, Matcher, Stephen J., Carré, Matthew J.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2016
Subjects:	Dermis - physiology Epidermis - physiology Forearm Humans Skin Stress, Mechanical Tomography, Optical Coherence
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Stratum corneum and epidermal layers change in terms of thickness and roughness with gender, age and anatomical site. Knowledge of the mechanical and tribological properties of skin associated with these structural changes are needed to aid in the design of exoskeletons, prostheses, orthotics, body mounted sensors used for kinematics measurements and in optimum use of wearable on-body devices. In this case study, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and digital image correlation (DIC) were combined to determine skin surface strain and sub-surface deformation behaviour of the volar forearm due to natural tissue stretching. The thickness of the epidermis together with geometry changes of the dermal-epidermal junction boundary were calculated during change in the arm angle, from flexion (90°) to full extension (180°). This posture change caused an increase in skin surface Lagrange strain, typically by 25% which induced considerable morphological changes in the upper skin layers evidenced by reduction of epidermal layer thickness (20%), flattening of the dermal-epidermal junction undulation (45–50% reduction of flatness being expressed as Ra and Rz roughness profile height change) and reduction of skin surface roughness Ra and Rz (40–50%). The newly developed method, DIC combined with OCT imaging, is a powerful, fast and non-invasive methodology to study structural skin changes in real time and the tissue response provoked by mechanical loading or stretching. [Display omitted] •Surface strain and sub-surface deformation quantified using OCT and DIC.•Change in forearm angle caused increase in skin surface strain by up to 30 %.•New OCT image algorithm to determine geometrical changes of DEJ.•Skin stretching reduced skin surface roughness by up to 50 %.•Decrease of epidermis thickness (20 %) and DEJ undulation (50 %) upon stretching.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1751-6161 1878-0180
DOI:	10.1016/j.jmbbm.2016.05.035