Main description:

This book describes the current state of knowledge in the field of multi-scale ECM mechanics and mechanobiology with a focus on experimental and modelling studies in biomechanical characterization, advanced optical microscopy and imaging, as well as computational modeling. This book also discusses the scale dependency of ECM mechanics, translation of mechanical forces from tissue to cellular level, and advances and challenges in improving our understanding of cellular mechanotransduction in the context of living tissues and organisms.

Contents:

Contributions of extracellular (ECM) constituents to the mechanical function of soft biological tissue.- Structure-based constitutive modeling of ECM mechanics.- Advanced optical imaging of ECM structures in biological systems -fundamental research and clinical applications.- Discrete fiber network modeling of ECM networks.- Microstructural mechanisms and contributions of elastin and collagen to the elastic and viscoelastic behavior of soft biological tissues.- Scale-dependency of multi-scale ECM mechanics and measurements.- Bridging scales - multi-scale mechanics of engineered and native tissue.- Mechanical and biological interactions between cells and ECM.- Multi-physics modeling of ECM mechanics.