Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The micro- and nanomechanical characterization of biological samples offers the possibility of retrieving the biophysical properties of tissues, cells, fibrous components and biomolecules. During recent decades, important achievements towards the development of groundbreaking experimental techniques for determining the mechanical properties of highly heterogeneous materials have been presented. It is also significant to note that new mathematical models for data processing have also been recently developed. In addition, determining the mechanical properties of biological materials and biomaterials at the micro- and nanoscale has opened new prospects regarding various applications such as disease diagnosis and prognosis (e.g., cancers and osteoarthritis). It is expected that mechanical characterization will play a key role in the future towards the development of rigorous user-independent disease diagnosis and prognosis based on rigorous mathematical criteria.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions in the form of full articles, short communications, or review articles on new results related to:

The mechanical characterization of biological samples and biomaterials at the micro- and nanoscale;
Experimental techniques for micro- and nanomechanical characterization;
Experimental techniques that combine imaging modes with mechanical property determination;
Applications of mechanical characterization in disease diagnosis and prognosis;
New mathematical models for data processing.

Dr. Stylianos Vasileios Kontomaris
Dr. Andreas Stylianou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

elastic and viscoelastic properties
scanning probe microscopy
biomaterials
cells
tissues
disease diagnosis and prognosis
tissue engineering
biomaterials surface characterization
mathematical modelling of biological materials
nanocharacterization of new materials

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 4564 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging of Elastin Nanofibers Self-Assembly

by Kyriaki Sambani, Stylianos Vasileios Kontomaris and Dido Yova

Materials 2023, 16(12), 4313; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16124313 - 11 Jun 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1429

Abstract

Elastin is an extracellular matrix protein, providing elasticity to the organs, such as skin, blood vessels, lungs and elastic ligaments, presenting self-assembling ability to form elastic fibers. The elastin protein, as a component of elastin fibers, is one of the major proteins found in connective tissue and is responsible for the elasticity of tissues. It provides resilience to the human body, assembled as a continuous mesh of fibers that require to be deformed repetitively and reversibly. Thus, it is of great importance to investigate the development of the nanostructural surface of elastin-based biomaterials. The purpose of this research was to image the self-assembling process of elastin fiber structure under different experimental parameters such as suspension medium, elastin concentration, temperature of stock suspension and time interval after the preparation of the stock suspension. atomic force microscopy (AFM) was applied in order to investigate how different experimental parameters affected fiber development and morphology. The results demonstrated that through altering a number of experimental parameters, it was possible to affect the self-assembly procedure of elastin fibers from nanofibers and the formation of elastin nanostructured mesh consisting of naturally occurring fibers. Further clarification of the contribution of different parameters on fibril formation will enable the design and control of elastin-based nanobiomaterials with predetermined characteristics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro- and Nanoscale Mechanical Properties of Biomaterials)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Micro- and Nanoscale Mechanical Properties of Biomaterials

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI