BACKGROUND Airway remodelling is a feature of asthma including fragmentation of elastic fibres observed in the superficial elastin network of the airway wall. Fibered confocal fluorescence microscopy (FCFM) is a new and non-invasive imaging technique performed during bronchoscopy that may visualize elastic fibres, as shown by in vitro spectral analysis of elastin powder. We hypothesized that FC...

SUMMARY Post-mortem specimens taken from the antebrachial and brachial fasciae of 20 upper limbs were studied by histological and immunohistochemical staining in order to evaluate collagen fibre bundle arrangement, the presence of elastic fibres, and the density of innervation in deep muscular fascia. The study demonstrated that the fasciae are formed of numerous layers of undulating colla-gen ...

Post-mortem specimens taken from the antebrachial and brachial fasciae of 20 upper limbs were studied by histological and immunohistochemical staining in order to evaluate collagen fibre bundle arrangement, the presence of elastic fibres, and the density of innervation in deep muscular fascia. The study demonstrated that the fasciae are formed of numerous layers of undulating collagen fibre bun...

changes and corresponding histopathology is unusual since the lesions had been observed already in the first years of life. Most patients with PXE-like PDE reported onset of disease after the fifth decade. Only one case in early middle age has been reported so far. Because of the late onset of the disease, some authors hypothesize PXE-PDE is related to intrinsic skin ageing and/or extrinsic age...

Late-onset focal dermal elastosis has recently been described as new clinical entity characterized by pseudoxanthoma elasticum-like eruptions and an accumulation of normal-appearing elastic fibres in the dermis. Elastin and collagen contents of the skin of 2 patients were 2- and 1.4-fold higher than in the skin of controls, respectively. A focal accumulation of elastin but not of fibrillin-1 wa...

The adhesive pads of geckos provide control of normal adhesive force by controlling the applied shear force. This frictional adhesion effect is one of the key principles used for rapid detachment in animals running up vertical surfaces. We developed polypropylene microfibre arrays composed of vertical, 0.3 microm radius fibres with elastic modulus of 1 GPa which show this effect for the first t...

This paper presents a new tool which makes it possible to find the spatial configuration of a system featuring elastic fibres interacting with each other and/or with rigid bodies. The configuration is determined by means of the principle of the minimum elastic potential energy of the system, ignoring Coulomb friction at the contacts. In particular, the paper reports both the elastic fiber model...

By morphometric investigation of the relative content of elastic and collagen fibres, we have tested the hypothesis that loss of elastic fibres in the conducting airways and lung parenchyma may reduce tissue elastic recoil, resulting in increased airway maximal closure and apparent increased responsiveness. The study groups comprised: Group A (n = 11) with relatively mild atopic asthma using in...

A study has been made of the ultrastructural organization of the collagen fibrils and elastic fibres in tendons and ligaments from horses of ages ranging from 2 months premature to 19 years. Diameter distributions of the collagen fibrils in the common digital extensor tendon, the super­ ficial flexor tendon and the suspensory ligament are unimodal in the foetal tissue and a t birth, and a t the...

(a) by competing for hydrogen bonding sites in the tissue or on the dye particle, it may inhibit staining in which the dye-substrate link is a hydrogen bond; (6) because it is a dipole, urea may have some affinity for charged sites in the tissue, and thus tend to reduce electrostatic staining; (c) urea may in some cases decrease staining by increasing the solubility of the dye; (d) by inhibitin...