| Abstract Scope |
Elastic biopolymers sustain critical mechanical and biochemical functions in human elastic tissues. Mature elastic fibers are exceptionally resistant to mechanical and physicochemical stress under healthy conditions, retaining their biomechanical function over the human lifespan. However, due to their longevity, during biological aging and in most prominent chronic diseases, including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and osteoarthritis, elastic tissues experience progressive mechanical degeneration. Over time, deleterious modifications to elastin—the key structural protein in elastic tissues that imparts elasticity and recoil function to skin, lungs, and arteries—accumulate, leading to severe symptoms in cardiovascular, pulmonary, and skeletal connective tissues. Deconvoluting multifactorial triggers that drive compromised tissue elasticity remains a challenge at the nanoscale as physicochemical stressors are concurrent and interlinked. We present recent work to probe the chemical complexity of elastic fiber assembly, function and degeneration in aging and disease through a multiscale in silico framework. |