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Birefringence Measurement of Rapid Structural Changes during Collagen Denatu ration
Author(s) -
Sankaran Vanitha,
Walsh Joseph T.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-1097.1998.tb05294.x
Subject(s) - denaturation (fissile materials) , birefringence , laser , materials science , arrhenius equation , millisecond , biophysics , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , optics , activation energy , chromatography , physics , astronomy , biology , nuclear chemistry
— Linear birefringence, an optical property that results from a material's structure and composition, can be used to study dynamic changes in tissue structure. Single, 200 μs‐long pulses from a Ho:YAG laser emitting 2.1 μm radiation were used to induce changes in the linear birefringence of rat tail tendon. Such changes were measured on a millisecond timescale. The measured rate coefficients describing the denaturation are not predicted by previous studies of collagen denaturation induced by slower, lower‐temperature heating. Two types of laser‐induced collagen denaturation can be differentiated: thermal denaturation, which appears rate‐limited, and thermomechanical denaturation, which is observed at higher laser radiant exposures. Neither process is described by standard Arrhenius‐type kinetic models.