Differences in Transmural Pressure and Axial Loading Ex Vivo Affect Arterial Remodeling and Material Properties

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Lawrence ◽  
Keith J. Gooch
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Axial Stress ◽  
Axial Loading ◽  
Transmural Pressure ◽  
Mechanical Stimuli ◽  
Axial Stretch ◽  
Mechanical Environment ◽  
Artery Geometry

Arterial axial strains, present in the in vivo environment, often become reduced due to either bypass grafting or the normal aging process. Since the prevalence of hypertension increases with aging, arteries are often exposed to both decreased axial stretch and increased transmural pressure. The combined effects of these mechanical stimuli on the mechanical properties of vessels have not previously been determined. Porcine carotid arteries were cultured for 9 days at normal and reduced axial stretch ratios in the presence of normotensive and hypertensive transmural pressures using ex vivo perfusion techniques. Measurements of the amount of axial stress were obtained through longitudinal tension tests while inflation-deflation test results were used to determine circumferential stresses and incremental moduli. Macroscopic changes in artery geometry and zero-stress state opening angles were measured. Arteries cultured ex vivo remodeled in response to the mechanical environment, resulting in changes in arterial dimensions of up to ∼25% and changes in zero-stress opening angles of up to ∼55°. While pressure primarily affected circumferential remodeling and axial stretch primarily affected axial remodeling, there were clear examples of interactions between these mechanical stimuli. Culture with hypertensive pressure, especially when coupled with reduced axial loading, resulted in a rightward shift in the pressure-diameter relationship relative to arteries cultured with normotensive pressure. The observed differences in the pressure-diameter curves for cultured arteries were due to changes in artery geometry and, in some cases, changes in the arteries’ intrinsic mechanical properties. Relative to freshly isolated arteries, arteries cultured under mechanical conditions similar to in vivo conditions were stiffer, suggesting that aspects of the ex vivo culture other than the mechanical environment also influenced changes in the arteries’ mechanical properties. These results confirm the well-known importance of transmural pressure with regard to arterial wall mechanics while highlighting additional roles for axial stretch in determining mechanical behavior.

scholarly journals Transmural pressure and axial loading interactively regulate arterial remodeling ex vivo

2009 ◽  
Vol 297 (1) ◽  
pp. H475-H484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Lawrence ◽  
Keith J. Gooch
Keyword(s):  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Axial Strain ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Transmural Pressure ◽  
In Vivo Studies ◽  
Outer Diameter ◽  
Arterial Remodeling ◽  
Axial Stretch ◽  
Wall Area

Physiological axial strains range between 40 and 60% in arteries, resulting in stresses comparable to those due to normal blood pressure or flow. To investigate the contribution of axial strain to arterial remodeling and function, porcine carotid arteries were cultured for 9 days at physiological and reduced axial stretch ratios in the presence of normotensive and hypertensive transmural pressures by ex vivo perfusion techniques. Consistent with previous in vivo studies, vessels cultured with physiological levels of axial strain and exposed to hypertensive pressure had greater mass, wall area, and outer diameter relative to those cultured at the same axial stretch ratio and normotensive pressure. Reducing the amount of axial strain resulted in mass loss and decreased cell proliferation. Culture in a hypertensive pressure environment at reduced axial strain produced arteries with greater contractility in response to norepinephrine. Arteries cultured at reduced axial strain with the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor GM6001 maintained their masses over culture, indicating a possible mechanism for this model of axial stretch-dependent remodeling. Although not historically considered one of the primary stimuli for remodeling, multiple linear regression analysis revealed that axial strain had an impact similar to or greater than transmural pressure on various remodeling indexes (i.e., outer diameter, wall area, and wet mass), suggesting that axial strain is a primary mediator of vascular remodeling.

scholarly journals Harmonic motion imaging of human breast masses: an in vivo clinical feasibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niloufar Saharkhiz ◽  
Richard Ha ◽  
Bret Taback ◽  
Xiaoyue Judy Li ◽  
Rachel Weber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Malignant Tumors ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Benign Tumors ◽  
Cancerous Tissue ◽  
Breast Masses ◽  
Harmonic Motion ◽  
Harmonic Motion Imaging ◽  
Motion Imaging

Abstract Non-invasive diagnosis of breast cancer is still challenging due to the low specificity of the imaging modalities that calls for unnecessary biopsies. The diagnostic accuracy can be improved by assessing the breast tissue mechanical properties associated with pathological changes. Harmonic motion imaging (HMI) is an elasticity imaging technique that uses acoustic radiation force to evaluate the localized mechanical properties of the underlying tissue. Herein, we studied the in vivo feasibility of a clinical HMI system to differentiate breast tumors based on their relative HMI displacements, in human subjects. We performed HMI scans in 10 female subjects with breast masses: five benign and five malignant masses. Results revealed that both benign and malignant masses were stiffer than the surrounding tissues. However, malignant tumors underwent lower mean HMI displacement (1.1 ± 0.5 µm) compared to benign tumors (3.6 ± 1.5 µm) and the adjacent non-cancerous tissue (6.4 ± 2.5 µm), which allowed to differentiate between tumor types. Additionally, the excised breast specimens of the same patients (n = 5) were imaged post-surgically, where there was an excellent agreement between the in vivo and ex vivo findings, confirmed with histology. Higher displacement contrast between cancerous and non-cancerous tissue was found ex vivo, potentially due to the lower nonlinearity in the elastic properties of ex vivo tissue. This preliminary study lays the foundation for the potential complementary application of HMI in clinical practice in conjunction with the B-mode to classify suspicious breast masses.

A Novel Experimental Technique for Quantifying the Local Mechanical Environment of Skeletal Tissues

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristy T. S. Palomares ◽  
Gregory J. Miller ◽  
Louis C. Gerstenfeld ◽  
Thomas A. Einhorn ◽  
Elise F. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Technique ◽  
Tissue Level ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Mechanical Stimuli ◽  
Mechanical Environment ◽  
Organ Level ◽  
Shear Motion ◽  
Healing Bone ◽  
Tissue Material

A growing body of evidence indicates that mechanical cues modulate the development and repair of skeletal tissues by regulating gene expression and tissue differentiation.[1–3] Further understanding of how the mechanical environment modulates these biological processes could be applied to enhance skeletal repair following injury or disease. Bone healing provides an excellent in vivo system for investigating cellular responses to mechanical stimuli, due to the recruitment of pluripotent, mechano-sensitive, mesenchymal stem cells. For example, recent studies have shown that bending and/or shear motion applied to a healing bone defect can result in cartilage rather than bone formation.[4,5] However, while different global (i.e. organ level) mechanical stimuli are known to result in different healing outcomes, the specific local (i.e. tissue level) stimuli that promote different tissue fates have yet to be established. Finite element analyses can provide estimates of these local stimuli, yet these analyses require many assumptions regarding tissue material properties and boundary conditions. Our overall goal in this study was to develop an experimental technique for quantifying the distributions of local strains that develop in skeletal tissues during mechanical loading.

Dynamic Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Shape Memory Alloy Nanowires Upon Multi-Axial Loading

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh P. Dhote ◽  
Roderick V. N. Melnik ◽  
Jean W. Zu
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Phase Transformation ◽  
Shape Memory Alloy ◽  
Shape Memory ◽  
Axial Stress ◽  
Phase Field Model ◽  
Axial Loading ◽  
Ginzburg Landau ◽  
Bending Load ◽  
Loading Case

In this paper, we study the behavior of shape memory alloy (SMA) nanowires subjected to multi-axial loading. We use the model developed in our earlier work to study the microstructure and mechanical properties of finite length nanowires. The phase field model with the Ginzburg-Landau free energy is used to model the phase transformation based on the chosen order parameter. The governing equations of the thermo-mechanical model are solved simultaneously for different loading cases. We observe that nanowire behaves in a stiff manner to axial load with complete conversion of the unfavorable martensite to the favorable one. The bending load aids the phase transformation by redistributing the martensitic variants based on the local axial stress sign. The nanowire behavior to multi-axial (axial and bending together) is stiffer axially than the axial loading case. The understanding of the behavior of nanowire to multi-axial loading will be useful in developing better SMA-based MEMS and NEMS devices.

Appropriate Objective Functions for Quantifying Iris Mechanical Properties Using Inverse Finite Element Modeling

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anup D. Pant ◽  
Syril K. Dorairaj ◽  
Rouzbeh Amini
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Finite Element ◽  
Objective Function ◽  
Inverse Modeling ◽  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Objective Functions ◽  
Estimation Of Parameters

Quantifying the mechanical properties of the iris is important, as it provides insight into the pathophysiology of glaucoma. Recent ex vivo studies have shown that the mechanical properties of the iris are different in glaucomatous eyes as compared to normal ones. Notwithstanding the importance of the ex vivo studies, such measurements are severely limited for diagnosis and preclude development of treatment strategies. With the advent of detailed imaging modalities, it is possible to determine the in vivo mechanical properties using inverse finite element (FE) modeling. An inverse modeling approach requires an appropriate objective function for reliable estimation of parameters. In the case of the iris, numerous measurements such as iris chord length (CL) and iris concavity (CV) are made routinely in clinical practice. In this study, we have evaluated five different objective functions chosen based on the iris biometrics (in the presence and absence of clinical measurement errors) to determine the appropriate criterion for inverse modeling. Our results showed that in the absence of experimental measurement error, a combination of iris CL and CV can be used as the objective function. However, with the addition of measurement errors, the objective functions that employ a large number of local displacement values provide more reliable outcomes.

scholarly journals Sost deficiency leads to reduced mechanical strains at the tibia midshaft in strain-matched in vivo loading experiments in mice

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (141) ◽  
pp. 20180012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laia Albiol ◽  
Myriam Cilla ◽  
David Pflanz ◽  
Ina Kramer ◽  
Michaela Kneissel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bone Formation ◽  
Cortical Bone ◽  
Neutralizing Antibodies ◽  
Bone Geometry ◽  
Bone Adaptation ◽  
Mechanical Stimuli ◽  
Mineral Density ◽  
Littermate Control ◽  
Mechanical Environment

Sclerostin, a product of the Sost gene, is a Wnt-inhibitor and thus negatively regulates bone accrual. Canonical Wnt/β-catenin signalling is also known to be activated in mechanotransduction. Sclerostin neutralizing antibodies are being tested in ongoing clinical trials to target osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta but their interaction with mechanical stimuli on bone formation remains unclear. Sost knockout (KO) mice were examined to gain insight into how long-term Sost deficiency alters the local mechanical environment within the bone. This knowledge is crucial as the strain environment regulates bone adaptation. We characterized the bone geometry at the tibial midshaft of young and adult Sost KO and age-matched littermate control (LC) mice using microcomputed tomography imaging. The cortical area and the minimal and maximal moment of inertia were higher in Sost KO than in LC mice, whereas no difference was detected in either the anterior–posterior or medio-lateral bone curvature. Differences observed between age-matched genotypes were greater in adult mice. We analysed the local mechanical environment in the bone using finite-element models (FEMs), which showed that strains in the tibiae of Sost KO mice are lower than in age-matched LC mice at the diaphyseal midshaft, a region commonly used to assess cortical bone formation and resorption. Our FEMs also suggested that tissue mineral density is only a minor contributor to the strain distribution in tibial cortical bone from Sost KO mice compared to bone geometry. Furthermore, they indicated that although strain gauging experiments matched strains at the gauge site, strains along the tibial length were not comparable between age-matched Sost KO and LC mice or between young and adult animals within the same genotype.

Shear Wave Speeds Track Axial Stress in Porcine Collateral Ligaments

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathon Blank ◽  
Darryl Thelen ◽  
Joshua Roth
Keyword(s):  
Shear Wave ◽  
Wave Speed ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Axial Stress ◽  
Axial Loading ◽  
Orthopedic Procedures ◽  
Stress Distributions ◽  
Collateral Ligaments ◽  
Wave Speeds ◽  
Shear Wave Speed

Ligament tension is an important factor that can affect the success of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedures. However, surgeons currently lack objective approaches for assessing tension in a particular ligament intraoperatively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of noninvasive shear wave tensiometry to characterize stress in medial and lateral collateral ligaments (MCLs and LCLs) ex vivo. Nine porcine MCL and LCL specimens were subjected to cyclic axial loading while wave speeds were measured using laser vibrometry. We found that squared shear wave speed increased linearly with stress in both the MCL (r2avg = 0.94) and LCL (r2avg = 0.98). Wave speeds were slightly lower in the MCL than the LCL when subjected to comparable axial stress (p < 0.001). Ligament-specific wave speeds may arise from differences in geometry and stress distributions between ligaments. These observations suggest it may be feasible to use noninvasive shear wave speed measures as a proxy of ligament loading during orthopedic procedures such as TKA.

scholarly journals Mechanical properties of porcine brain tissue in vivo and ex vivo estimated by MR elastography

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 10-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte A. Guertler ◽  
Ruth J. Okamoto ◽  
John L. Schmidt ◽  
Andrew A. Badachhape ◽  
Curtis L. Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Brain Tissue ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Mr Elastography ◽  
Porcine Brain ◽  
Porcine Brain Tissue

Modelling Dynamical Arterial Adaptations to Altered Chemo-Mechanical Environments

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Cardamone ◽  
Arturo Valentin ◽  
Jay D. Humphrey
Keyword(s):  
Extracellular Matrix ◽  
Endothelial Cells ◽  
Smooth Muscle ◽  
Vascular Tone ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Cell Activity ◽  
Mechanical Stimuli ◽  
Mechanical Environment ◽  
Sense And Respond

Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC), endothelial cells (EC), and fibroblasts exist in a dynamic mechanical environment and can sense and respond to mechanical stimuli in vivo (McKnight and Frangos [1]). It is becoming more and more clear that complex dynamics not only influences vascular tone but also SMC proliferation (see Dancu et al. [2]) and extracellular matrix turnover (Cummins et al. [3]) by stimulating cell activity.

scholarly journals Impact of chronic hypoxia on proximal pulmonary artery wave propagation and mechanical properties in rats

2018 ◽  
Vol 314 (6) ◽  
pp. H1264-H1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junjing Su ◽  
Charmilie C. Logan ◽  
Alun D. Hughes ◽  
Kim H. Parker ◽  
Niti M. Dhutia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Tensile Strength ◽  
Pulse Wave Velocity ◽  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Wave Reflection ◽  
Chronic Hypoxia ◽  
Pulse Wave ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Pulmonary Arteries

Arterial stiffness and wave reflection are important components of the ventricular afterload. Therefore, we aimed to assess the arterial wave characteristics and mechanical properties of the proximal pulmonary arteries (PAs) in the hypoxic pulmonary hypertensive rat model. After 21 days in normoxic or hypoxic chambers (24 animals/group), animals underwent transthoracic echocardiography and PA catheterization with a dual-tipped pressure and Doppler flow sensor wire. Wave intensity analysis was performed. Artery rings obtained from the pulmonary trunk, right and left PAs, and aorta were subjected to a tensile test to rupture. Collagen and elastin content were determined. In hypoxic rats, proximal PA wall thickness, collagen content, tensile strength per unit collagen, maximal elastic modulus, and wall viscosity increased, whereas the elastin-to-collagen ratio and arterial distensibility decreased. Arterial pulse wave velocity was also increased, and the increase was more prominent in vivo than ex vivo. Wave intensity was similar in hypoxic and normoxic animals with negligible wave reflection. In contrast, the aortic maximal elastic modulus remained unchanged, whereas wall viscosity decreased. In conclusion, there was no evidence of altered arterial wave propagation in proximal PAs of hypoxic rats while the extracellular matrix protein composition was altered and collagen tensile strength increased. This was accompanied by altered mechanical properties in vivo and ex vivo. NEW & NOTEWORTHY In rats exposed to chronic hypoxia, we have shown that pulse wave velocity in the proximal pulmonary arteries increased and pressure dependence of the pulse wave velocity was steeper in vivo than ex vivo leading to a more prominent increase in vivo.

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