Figure 4.

Rheological properties of the healthy and cancer tissues: (A) stress (normal force/sample surface) as a function of axial strain; (B) G′ as a function of axial strain (compression); (C, D) G′ and G″ as a function of axial stress. Average values for all samples. Blue, healthy tissue; red, cancer tissue. (E) G″/G′ as a function of axial stress. For both healthy and cancer samples, the compression stiffening effect is visible, but cancer tissues have significantly higher storage modulus and stiffen to a greater extent when compressive force is applied. Cancer tissue in compression reacts by increasing elasticity more prominently compared to healthy tissue. At increasing compression, samples become more elastic and less dissipative, especially cancer tissues.