Soft tissue

In medicine, the term soft tissue or soft tissue (: colloquially soft tissues , English: soft tissue ), the soft tissue in addition to the epithelium , the glial tissue and internal organs ; that is, all fat tissue , muscle tissue and connective tissue except bones , including the small blood vessels and nerves they contain.

composition

Collagen , elastin and basic substance characterize the extracellular matrix of this type of tissue. The basic substance binds plenty of water. Fibroblasts are the cells responsible for the production of fibers and basic substance ; also the related chondroblasts .

Mechanical properties

If the stretching is numerically low , the elastin gives the fabric rigidity and stores most of the distortion energy . The collagen fibers are wavy and comparatively elastic when at rest. As the tissue deforms, they are gradually stretched in the direction of the deformation. Once stretched out, these fibers greatly increase the tissue stiffness. This composite behavior is similar to that of a nylon stocking , in which the elastic band takes on the role of elastin and the nylon takes on the role of collagen. The collagen limits the stretching of the soft tissue and protects it from injury.

Fig. 1: Graph of the Lagrange tension ( ) versus degree of stretch ( ) of a preconditioned soft tissue ${\displaystyle T=F/A_{0}}$ ${\displaystyle \lambda =l/l_{0}}$

Soft tissues can experience great deformation and then return to their original configuration. The stress-strain curve is non-linear (Fig.). The soft tissues are also viscoelastic , incompressible and usually anisotropic . Some viscoelastic properties that can be observed in soft tissues are relaxation , creep, and hysteresis .

Soft tissue disorders

Soft tissue diseases include soft tissue infections such as Fournier's gangrene , mastitis , myositis , necrotizing fasciitis, and phlegmon .

See also

• Biomaterial
• Biomechanics
• Fascia
• Rheology

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner Böcker: Pathology . Elsevier, Urban & Fischer Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-437-42382-6 , pp. 1109 .
2. ^ LCU Junqueira, J. Carneiro, M. Gratzl: Histology . Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-540-21965-X .
3. ↑ Jay D. Humphrey: Continuum biomechanics of soft biological tissues . In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A . tape 459 , 2003, p. 3–46 , doi : 10.1098 / rspa.2002.1060 .
4. ↑ Y.-C. Fung: Biomechanics: Mechanical Properties of Living Tissues . Springer-Verlag, New York 1993, ISBN 0-387-97947-6 .
5. ^ Marianne Abele-Horn: Antimicrobial Therapy. Decision support for the treatment and prophylaxis of infectious diseases. With the collaboration of Werner Heinz, Hartwig Klinker, Johann Schurz and August Stich, 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Peter Wiehl, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-927219-14-4 , pp. 150–152.