Rob when I was working on my master's I worked a lot with human skin. Hypertrophic scaring and laser treatment of these scars is what my thesis was based on. At time I felt like a pathologist not an engineer. I have plenty of time looking through a scope and know what liver, bone, muscle, ligaments, and skin look like under a scope. They are not made up of cells for the most part. There are cells there that break down the extracellular matrix (collagen) and cells that make new collagen. It is the way it works. Collagen does not break down because you freeze it, cells do or at least their membranes rupture. they will reseal after thawing. What give something its firmness is the colagen matrix it is virtually made up of. the matrix is broken down and remade continously. The reason why a live animal has a firmness is due to muscle tension. After death the muscle still have a tension in them. Then rigamortous sets in (all muscles stiffen in the posistion they are in), then after about 12 hours rigamortous disappears and all muscles cross bridges are unbound. At this point the animal is pretty flexible and floppy. This is why a rat after it has been frozen is floppy it has no muscle tone. Muscle are what keeps up from flopping all over the place. It is cellular wall integrity. And yes I am working on my doctorate in biomedical engineering.
-----
Derek Affonce

DeKeAff Exotics

dekeaffexotics.com

[ Show Entire Thread ]