Imperial College London
Alternate

DrIainDunlop

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Materials

Reader in Biomaterials and Cell Engineering
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6731i.dunlop

 
 
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Location

 

1.02Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Hopkins:2021:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121099,
author = {Hopkins, T and Bemmer, V and Franks, S and Dunlop, C and Hardy, K and Dunlop, I},
doi = {10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121099},
journal = {Biomaterials},
pages = {1--9},
title = {Micromechanical mapping of the intact ovary interior reveals contrasting mechanical roles for follicles and stroma},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121099},
volume = {277},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Follicle  development  in  the  ovary  must  be  tightly  regulated  to  ensure  cyclical  release  of  oocytes (ovulation).  Disruption  of  this  process  is  a  common  cause  of  infertility,  for  example  via  polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). Recent ex vivo studies suggest that follicle growth is mechanically regulated, however, crucially, the actual mechanical properties of the follicle microenvironment have remained unknown. Here we use atomic force microscopy (AFM) spherical  probe  indentation  to  map  and  quantify  the  mechanical  microenvironment in  the  mouse ovary, at  high  resolution  and  across  the  entire  width  of  the  intact  (bisected)  ovarian  interior. Averaging  over  the  entire  organ,  we  find  the  ovary  to  be  a  fairly  soft  tissue  comparable  to  fat  or kidney (mean Young’s Modulus 3.3 +/-2.5 kPa). This average, however, conceals substantial spatial variations, with the overall range of tissue stiffnesses from c. 0.5 –10 kPa, challenging the concept that  a  single  Young’s  Modulus  can  effectively  summarize  this  complex  organ.  Considering  the internal  architecture  of  the ovary,  we  find  that  stiffness  is  low  at  the  edge  and  centre  which  are dominated  by  stromal  tissue,  and  highest  in  an  intermediate  zone  that  is  dominated  by  large developmentally-advanced follicles, confirmed by comparison with immunohistology images. These results  suggest  that  largefollicles  are  mechanically  dominant  structures  in  the  ovary,  contrasting with  previous  expectations  that  collagen-rich  stroma  would  dominate.  Extending  our  study  to  the highest resolutions (c. 5 μm) showed substantial mechanical variations within the larger zones, even over very short (sub-100 μm) lengths, and especially within the stiffer regions of the ovary.  Taken together, our results provide a new, physiologically accurate, framework for ovaria
AU  - Hopkins,T
AU  - Bemmer,V
AU  - Franks,S
AU  - Dunlop,C
AU  - Hardy,K
AU  - Dunlop,I
DO  - 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121099
EP  - 9
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 0142-9612
SP  - 1
TI  - Micromechanical mapping of the intact ovary interior reveals contrasting mechanical roles for follicles and stroma
T2  - Biomaterials
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121099
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961221004555?via%3Dihub
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/91307
VL  - 277
ER  -
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