UConn engineers found water drives the body's natural spring
A Nature Communications study using simulations shows hydration water does most of the work in elastin's stretch and recoil, a finding aimed at tissue and biomaterials research.
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University of Connecticut engineers report that water does most of the work when elastin stretches and snaps back, UConn Today wrote about a study in Nature Communications. The team used simulations. Those models found that hydration water, the water associated with the protein, accounts for most of that spring-like behavior. The researchers say the result can inform work on tissue and on biomaterials. It is a finding about how elastin works in simulation. It is not a treatment, and it was not a trial in patients.
For the classroom
Engineers at the University of Connecticut studied elastin, a material in the body that stretches and snaps back, like a spring in skin and other tissue. UConn Today reported that a paper in Nature Communications used computer simulations, not a treatment tried on patients. The simulations found that water held around the elastin does most of the work of that stretch and recoil. The finding is meant to inform research on tissue and on materials made to behave like tissue. It is an explanation of how elastin works, not a new medicine.
- Why would scientists use a computer simulation before they change anything in a real body?
- What is the difference between learning how a tissue works and treating a patient?
- Where do you notice something in your body stretching and then returning to shape?
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