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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 287/3/H1335    most recent 00094.2004v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (11) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Zulliger, M. A. Articles by Stergiopulos, N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Zulliger, M. A. Articles by Stergiopulos, N.

A constitutive formulation of arterial mechanics including vascular smooth muscle tone

¹Laboratory of Hemodynamics and Cardiovascular Technology, Institute for Biomedical Imaging, Optics, and Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; and ²Department of Biomechanics of Tissues and Systems, Institute of Mechanics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

Submitted 2 February 2004 ; accepted in final form 3 May 2004

A pseudo-strain energy function (pseudo-SEF) describing the biomechanical properties of large conduit arteries under the influence of vascular smooth muscle (VSM) tone is proposed. In contrast to previous models that include the effects of smooth muscle contraction through generation of an active stress, in this study we consider the vascular muscle as a structural element whose contribution to load bearing is modulated by the contraction. This novel pseudo-SEF models not only arterial mechanics at maximal VSM contraction but also the myogenic contraction of the VSM in response to local increases in stretch. The proposed pseudo-SEF was verified with experimentally obtained pressure-radius curves and zero-stress state configurations from rat carotid arteries displaying distinct differences in VSM tone: arteries from normotensive rats displaying minimal VSM tone and arteries from hypertensive rats exhibiting significant VSM tone. The pressure-radius curves were measured in three different VSM states: fully relaxed, maximally contracted, and normal VSM tone. The model fitted the experimental data very well (r² > 0.99) in both the normo- and hypertensive groups for all three states of VSM activation. The pseudo-SEF was used to illustrate the localized reduction of circumferential stress in the arterial wall due to normal VSM tone, suggesting that the proposed pseudo-SEF can be of general utility for describing stress distribution not only under passive VSM conditions, as most SEFs proposed so far, but also under physiological and pathological conditions with varying levels of VSM tone.

biomechanical properties; constitutive equation; myogenic response; nonlinear elasticity

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