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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 15: Poster IIb

BP 15.24: Poster

Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 18:00–20:30, Poster F

Influence of water content on nanomechanical properties of native tendon tissue — •Mario Zerson, Martin Dehnert, Paul Zech, and Robert Magerle — Fakultät für Naturwissenschaften, TU Chemnitz

Water is an essential component of natural tissues, providing elasticity to collagen fibrils and their interfibrillar matrix. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) in humid air enables high-resolution imaging of the nanomechanical properties of collagen fibrils in native tendons. Accurate control of humidity and temperature is essential for reproducible measurements of nanomechanical properties in AFM-based nanoindentation experiments. Here we report on the influence of relative humidity on the nanomechanical properties of native tendon tissue obtained from the calcaneus (Achilles) tendon of chickens. The sample is exposed to a flow of humid air with controlled relative humidity and force--distance data are measured. We use the same tip on the same collagen fibrils for different levels of relative humidity. This eliminates variation due to differences in tip shape and different tissue samples. Our data show the variation of effective indentation modulus and plasticity index as a function of relative humidity in the range of 40 to 95%. We compare these results with analogous experiments on gelatin films.

Keywords: Collagen; Atomic Force Microscopy; Water; Tendon