Bladder health and dysfunction is not well understood. Research with mouse models is an effective way to study soft tissue/organ function especially with the genetic tools available in this species. Despite this advantage, bladder research in mice is still lacking compared to other animal models. Particularly, mechanical testing/analysis of the mouse bladder tissue are near non-existent in literature. In this dissertation, experimental ex vivo pressurization of whole mouse bladders was used to analyze the mechanical stresses and stretches in the soft tissue. Bladder filling cycles were digitally reconstructed in four dimensions (4D: 3D space + time). The reconstructions were used to characterize the geometry and mechanics of the bladder as it fills. This led us to the novel discovery that male and female bladder behaves in significantly different way, even in health. This work contributes to the bladder mechanics literature as this level of 4D and mechanical analysis of bladder filling in a mouse model has not been shown before.
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