Innovative instrumentation for assessing the mechanical properties of skin

Bastien Blanchard (1, 2) , Francis Ehrenfeld (2) , Anthony Laffore (2) , Corinne Nardin (2) , Giuseppe Percoco (3) , Laurent Peno-Mazzarino (3) , Christophe Derail (2)

1 UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour
2 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux
3 Laboratoire BIO-EC

The global viscoelastic properties of human skin play a key role in skin integrity, as they confer to the cutaneous tissue its ability to remain intact. Skin damages, such as stretch marks, wrinkles and wounds such as pressure sores, are either the result of very large deformations leading to irreversible damage, or due to natural ageing leading to a reduced capacity of the skin to deform reversibly. All of these behaviours are related to skin mechanical properties which are also controlled by the complex structure of the tissue: superimposed layers that provide a set of features to the tissue, each with its own dedicated properties and function. Measuring the mechanical properties of the skin has in general a triple interest: (i) To obtain a description of the natural history of the skin over the years, in particular during the ageing process; (ii) To have a method for objective evaluation of the effect of some medical or dermo-cosmetic products; (iii) To observe and quantify skin pathologies that can lead to an alteration of the tissue mechanical properties: scleroderma, collagenosis, hyperkeratosis. In this context a specific instrument to evaluate the viscoelastic properties of human skin has been developed. The objective is to characterise the two principal components of the skin, elasticity and viscosity, at different frequencies in order to discriminate each phenomenon. Finally, we aim at the evaluation of the evolution of these parameters in response to various stresses. This technology combined with the use of ex vivo skin samples under physiological conditions for several days, should enable to answer scientific and technical questions and help for the development of products intended for treatments. Indeed, we propose to analyse and evaluate in an objective way: - the effects of different external stresses (stretch marks, exposure to UV radiation, pollution by a chemical product or by the atmosphere, incision, etc.) - the effects of medical or dermo-cosmetic products (moisturising creams, healing dressings, etc.) on the viscoelastic properties of human skin. In this poster, we will describe the technology and show the first results obtained to demonstrate the device’s ability to accurately explore the mechanical properties of skin under stresses.

Mots clés: Human tissues; Health; Rheology; Mechanics; Instrumentation; Mechanical properties

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Physique [physics]

Bastien Blanchard, Francis Ehrenfeld, Anthony Laffore, Corinne Nardin, Giuseppe Percoco, et al.. Innovative instrumentation for assessing the mechanical properties of skin. 4ème Congrès COMET 2022: COsmetic MEsurement & Testing, Jul 2022, Cergy Pontoise, France. . ⟨hal-03848359⟩