0000000000206376
AUTHOR
João S. Soares
Large strain stimulation promotes extracellular matrix production and stiffness in an elastomeric scaffold model
Mechanical conditioning of engineered tissue constructs is widely recognized as one of the most relevant methods to enhance tissue accretion and microstructure, leading to improved mechanical behaviors. The understanding of the underlying mechanisms remains rather limited, restricting the development of in silico models of these phenomena, and the translation of engineered tissues into clinical application. In the present study, we examined the role of large strip-biaxial strains (up to 50%) on ECM synthesis by vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) micro-integrated into electrospun polyester urethane urea (PEUU) constructs over the course of 3 weeks. Experimental results indicated that VSMC …
Modeling in cardiovascular biomechanics
In this review, we briefly summarize some of Professor K.R. Rajagopal's contributions to the field of cardiovascular mechanics and highlight some applications that have employed his theories and have expanded the ability to model the complex behaviors that characterize biological tissues. His contributions, spawning directly from the classical nonlinear theories of mechanics, have had general impact in diverse fields of engineering. Within biomechanics per se, Rajagopal's efforts have provided state-of-the-art modeling tools not only to characterize tissues, such as blood vessels, cerebral aneurysms, or blood, but also to characterize their evolution, i.e. vessel growth and remodeling or bl…