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Differential mechanical response and microstructural organization between non-human primate femoral and carotid arteries

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Abstract

Unique anatomic locations and physiologic functions predispose different arteries to varying mechanical responses and pathologies. However, the underlying causes of these mechanical differences are not well understood. The objective of this study was to first identify structural differences in the arterial matrix that would account for the mechanical differences between healthy femoral and carotid arteries and second to utilize these structural observations to perform a microstructurally motivated constitutive analysis. Femoral and carotid arteries were subjected to cylindrical biaxial loading and their microstructure was quantified using two-photon microscopy. The femoral arteries were found to be less compliant than the carotid arteries at physiologic loads, consistent with previous studies, despite similar extracellular compositions of collagen and elastin (\(P> 0.05\)). The femoral arteries exhibited significantly less circumferential dispersion of collagen fibers (\(P< 0.05\)), despite a similar mean fiber alignment direction as the carotid arteries. Elastin transmural distribution, in vivo axial stretch, and opening angles were also found to be distinctly different between the arteries. Lastly, we modeled the arteries’ mechanical behaviors using a microstructural-based, distributed collagen fiber constitutive model. With this approach, the material parameters of the model were solved using the experimental microstructural observations. The findings of this study support an important role for microstructural organization in arterial stiffness.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Brandon Dixon and Dr. William Wan for their contributions in developing the fiber extraction algorithm and two-photon techniques. We would also like to acknowledge the staff at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center for their help in harvesting the arteries. This work was supported by funding sources from the National Center for Research Resources Grant P51RR165 (Yerkes), the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs Grant P51OD11132 (Yerkes), the National Institute of Health Bioengineering Partnership Program Grant HL-070531 (RW, JR, RLG), the Department of Vascular Surgery startup grant (LPB), American Heart Association Innovative Research Grant 14740001 (LPB), and the Regenerative Engineering and Medicine Seed Grant supported in part by Public Health Services Grant ULITR000454 (RW, LPB).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ruoya Wang & Rudolph L. Gleason Jr.

  2. Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Julia Raykin & Rudolph L. Gleason Jr.

  3. Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Haiyan Li & Luke P. Brewster

  4. Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Rudolph L. Gleason Jr. & Luke P. Brewster

  5. Atlanta VA Medical Center, Surgical and Research Services, 101 Woodruff Circle, 5211 WMB, Atlanta, GA , 30322 , USA

    Luke P. Brewster

Authors
  1. Ruoya Wang
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  2. Julia Raykin
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  3. Haiyan Li
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  4. Rudolph L. Gleason Jr.
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  5. Luke P. Brewster
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ruoya Wang or Luke P. Brewster.

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Wang, R., Raykin, J., Li, H. et al. Differential mechanical response and microstructural organization between non-human primate femoral and carotid arteries. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 13, 1041–1051 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-014-0553-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-014-0553-0

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