Tear propagation in vaginal tissue under inflation.

ABSTRACT: Vaginal tearing at childbirth is extremely common yet understudied despite the long-term serious consequences on women's health. The mechanisms of vaginal tearing remain unknown, and their knowledge could lead to the development of transformative prevention and treatment techniques for maternal injury. In this study, whole rat vaginas with pre-imposed elliptical tears oriented along the axial direction of the organs were pressurized using a custom-built inflation setup, producing large tear propagation. Large deformations of tears through propagation were analyzed, and nonlinear strains around tears were calculated using the digital image correlation technique. Second harmonic generation microscopy was used to examine collagen fiber organization in mechanically untested and tested vaginal

SUBMITTER: McGuire JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11832074 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature