Two-dimensional stress-relaxation behavior of human skin as influenced by non-enzymatic glycation and the inhibitory agent aminoguanidine.

In order to simulate the in vivo stress alterations of diabetic skin in an in vitro model, we examined the viscoelastic properties of long-term glycated human skin samples. Since skin is subjected to biaxial tension, we used two-dimensional multiaxial testing which better reflects the in vivo situation than the uniaxial testing mode. For native skin samples from the abdominal region we found a direction-dependent elastic stress strain behavior. The viscous stress component was separated from the elastic stress component by relaxation tests at consecutive incremental steps of radial strains. We hypothesize that glycation-induced changes in the tissue stiffness are generated in a direction-dependent mode. A marked increase of the direction-dependent stiffness was found upon long-term incubation with glucose-6-phosphate. This increase was statistically significant for the maximum principal elastic stress component which was highly correlated with the degree of non-enzymatic collagen modification. The viscous fractions obtained from two-dimensional relaxation tests at consecutive radial strains were inversely correlated with non-enzymatic modification. Only at 30% radial strain a significant decrease of the viscous fraction engendered by glucose-6-phosphate was observed together with a direction-dependent significant increase of the expectation value of the time constant. The biomechanical and biochemical effects of long-term glycation could be partially reversed by aminoguanidine, a potential therapeutic agent for patients with diabetes mellitus. Our findings suggest that additional cross-links generated by long-term glycation cause two-dimensional biomechanical alterations in human skin, which can be unequivocally detected by multiaxial testing.