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Establishment of a Biaxial Testing System for Characterization of Right Ventricle Viscoelasticity Under Physiological Loadings

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Abstract

Purpose

Prior studies have indicated an impact of cardiac muscle viscoelasticity on systolic and diastolic functions. However, the studies of ventricular free wall viscoelasticity, particularly for that of right ventricles (RV), are limited. Moreover, investigations on ventricular passive viscoelasticity have been restricted to large animals and there is a lack of data on rodent species. To fill this knowledge gap, this study aims to develop a biaxial tester that induces high-speed physiological deformations to characterize the passive viscoelasticity of rat RVs.

Methods

The biaxial testing system was fabricated so that planar deformation of rat ventricle tissues at physiological strain rates was possible. The testing system was validated using isotropic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sheets. Next, viscoelastic measurements were performed in healthy rat RV free walls by equibiaxial cyclic sinusoidal loadings and stress relaxation.

Results

The biaxial tester’s consistency, accuracy, and stability was confirmed from the PDMS samples measurements. Moreover, significant viscoelastic alterations of the RV were found between sub-physiological (0.1 Hz) and physiological frequencies (1–8 Hz). From hysteresis loop analysis, we found as the frequency increased, the elasticity and viscosity were increased in both directions. Interestingly, the ratio of storage energy to dissipated energy (Wd/Ws) remained constant at 0.1–5 Hz. We did not observe marked differences in healthy RV viscoelasticity between longitudinal and circumferential directions.

Conclusion

This work provides a new experimental tool to quantify the passive, biaxial viscoelasticity of ventricle free walls in both small and large animals. The dynamic mechanical tests showed frequency-dependent elastic and viscous behaviors of healthy rat RVs. But the ratio of dissipated energy to stored energy was maintained between frequencies. These findings offer novel baseline information on the passive viscoelasticity of healthy RVs in adult rats.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Katie Evans and Michael Nguyen-Truong for assisting in data collection, and Ethan Barron for helping in tissue bath construction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Kellan Roth, Kristen LeBar, Matt Ahern & Zhijie Wang

  2. School of Biomedical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Wenqiang Liu, Matt Ahern & Zhijie Wang

  3. Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Wenqiang Liu

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  1. Kellan Roth
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Correspondence to Zhijie Wang.

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Kellan Roth, Wenqiang Liu, Kristen LeBar, Matt Ahern and Zhijie Wang declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Associate Editor Sarah Vigmostad, Ph.D. oversaw the review of this article.

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Roth, K., Liu, W., LeBar, K. et al. Establishment of a Biaxial Testing System for Characterization of Right Ventricle Viscoelasticity Under Physiological Loadings. Cardiovasc Eng Tech (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13239-024-00722-5

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