Also: catch connective tissue, mutable collagenous tissue
Sea cucumbers can switch their skin from soft to stiff in seconds. This inspired materials that change stiffness on demand, such as softening brain implants.
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Motokawa reviewed echinoderm catch connective tissue, whose stiffness changes in seconds to minutes under nervous control, not by muscle.
As reported in: MOTOKAWA (1984). CONNECTIVE TISSUE CATCH IN ECHINODERMS. Biological Reviews. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.1984.tb00409.x
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Mo and colleagues used X-ray measurements to show sea cucumber tissue changes stiffness via the matrix between collagen fibrils, not the fibrils themselves.
As reported in: Mo, Prévost, Blowes et al. (2016). Interfibrillar stiffening of echinoderm mutable collagenous tissue demonstrated at the nanoscale. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1609341113
Szulgit and Shadwick found two dermis extracts made sea cucumber tissue stiff or compliant, even after cells were lysed, so they act on the extracellular matrix.
As reported in: Szulgit, Shadwick (2000). Dynamic Mechanical Characterization of a Mutable Collagenous Tissue: Response of Sea Cucumber Dermis to Cell Lysis and Dermal Extracts. Journal of Experimental Biology. doi:10.1242/jeb.203.10.1539
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Capadona and colleagues made a polymer composite that switches between stiff and soft when wetted, inspired by sea cucumber dermis.
Built / tested: stiffness-changing composite
As reported in: Capadona, Shanmuganathan, Tyler et al. (2008). Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Nanocomposites Inspired by the Sea Cucumber Dermis. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1153307
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