Role of extracellular matrix in the biomechanical behavior of pancreatic tissue.

Correlating the biomechanical properties of tissue with its function is an emerging area of research with potential impact in diagnostics, therapeutics, and prognostics. A critical stepping-stone in developing structure-function models is creating methods that can correlate the tissue structure with its mechanical behavior. As an initial step in addressing this challenge, we have characterized the mechanical behavior of unprocessed pancreatic tissue using optical fiber polarimetric elastography.