15502-m-pleumeekers

Similarly, NC samples showed no significant differences with age or gender for all measured parameters. Correlation coefficients between mechanical and biochemical parameters (Table 2) show that for EC, DNA, sGAG and elastin correlated significantly with Ein, σ max , Eeq, and DNA correlated significantly with t 1/2 , and hydroxyproline with Ein. For NC, DNA correlated significantly with Ein, σ max , and Eeq, and sGAG correlated significantly with t 1/2 . All correlations between mechanical and biochemical measures yielded low correlation coefficients; specifically, for Eeq and sGAG content, R =0.32, p <0.05, n =171, and for Eeq and elastin content, R =0.44, p <0.05, n =41. R h DNA sGAG HYP ELN EC Ein 0.55 ● -0.23 ● 0.31 ● 0.16 ● 0.39 ● σ max 0.61 ● -0.25 ● 0.26 ● -0.10 ● 0.44 ● Eeq 0.54 ● -0.27 ● 0.32 ● -0.10 ● 0.44 ● t 1/2 0.10 ● -0.24 ● -0.11 ● -0.02 ● -0.17 ●● NC Ein 0.48 ● -0.31 ● 0.05 -0.03 ● - σ max 0.63 ● -0.33 ● 0.07 -0.12 ● - Eeq 0.44 ● -0.25 ● 0.04 -0.09 ● - t 1/2 -0.01 ● -0.18 ● -0.32 ● -0.10 ● - Table 2. Pearson coefficients ( R ) observed between the measured mechanical (Ein, σ max , Eeq and t 1/2 ) and biochemical parameters (DNA, sGAG, hydroxyproline and elastin) for EC and NC samples. ● Indicates significant differences, where p <0.05. Sirius red, Resorcin-Fuchsin and Safranin-O staining of histological sections of native human EC for all ear regions and for young and old adult groups show high cell density in EC samples. (Figure 4) Lighter Safranin-O staining for old adult reflects lower sGAG content measured by the DMMB assay. (Figure 3) 36 CHAPTER 2