The alinear viscoelastic properties of human skin in vivo related to sex and age

From the published data on the mechanical properties of the human skin, it seems that authors using different measuring techniques obtain different data1,2. We examined the mechanical properties of the human skin of the calf in vivo for small deformations in several subjects of both sexes and different ages with two different measuring techniques, uniaxial strain and torsion, and compared the results. The aim of this study was to clarify apparent discrepancies on the basis of an improved mechanical skin model in which the fibrous structure of the skin has been taken into account and to determine the normal values of these skin properties.