The viscoelastic properties of human skin are fundamental to its ability to maintain structural integrity. These mechanical characteristics are crucial for understanding skin behavior and have several important applications: (i) documenting the natural evolution of skin over time; (ii) providing an objective method to evaluate the efficacy of medical or dermo-cosmetic treatments; and (iii) identifying and quantifying pathological changes that affect the mechanical properties of the tissue. To address these needs, a novel instrument has been developed specifically to assess the viscoelastic properties of ex vivo human skin explants, maintained in physiological-like conditions over seven days. This device, described herein, enables both conventional tensile testing and dynamic mechanical analysis. The latter allows for the characterization of the skin's two primary mechanical components-elasticity and energy dissipation-across a range of frequencies, thereby enabling the differentiation of these phenomena. Initial studies focused on repeatability and reproducibility using skin explants, confirming the robustness of both the instrument and the measurement protocol for ex vivo skin characterization. A comprehensive example of mechanical analysis is presented to illustrate the capabilities of the device. Ultimately, this instrument offers a promising approach for evaluating the viscoelastic behavior of human skin explants and for monitoring the impact of various stressors on skin mechanics over time.
Blanchard et al. (Tue,) studied this question.