Gels in Living Organism
摘要
Living organism largely consists of hydrogels with highly hierarchical orders and builds up organs and tissues. This chapter describes the structure and properties of extracellular matrix which is the hydrogel laterally existing through soft tissues. This will be followed by soft tissues, cells, and cytoskeletal protein assemblies along the hierarchical order. Specific viscoelastic functions of biological gels which are essential for vital activities will be emphasized.