New interpretation of arterial stiffening due to cigarette smoking using a structurally motivated constitutive model

TY - JOUR

T1 - New interpretation of arterial stiffening due to cigarette smoking using a structurally motivated constitutive model

AU - Enevoldsen, Majken

AU - Henneberg, K-A

AU - Jensen, J A

AU - Lönn, L

AU - Humphrey, J D

N1 - Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2011/4/7

Y1 - 2011/4/7

N2 - Cigarette smoking is the leading self-inflicted risk factor for cardiovascular diseases; it causes arterial stiffening with serious sequelea including atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic aneurysms. This work presents a new interpretation of arterial stiffening caused by smoking based on data published for rat pulmonary arteries. A structurally motivated "four fiber family" constitutive relation was used to fit the available biaxial data and associated best-fit values of material parameters were estimated using multivariate nonlinear regression. Results suggested that arterial stiffening caused by smoking was reflected by consistent increase in an elastin-associated parameter and moreover by marked increase in the collagen-associated parameters. That is, we suggest that arterial stiffening due to cigarette smoking appears to be isotropic, which may allow simpler phenomenological models to capture these effects using a single stiffening parameter similar to the approach in isotropic continuum damage mechanics. There is a pressing need, however, for more detailed histological information coupled with more complete biaxial mechanical data for a broader range of systemic arteries.

AB - Cigarette smoking is the leading self-inflicted risk factor for cardiovascular diseases; it causes arterial stiffening with serious sequelea including atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic aneurysms. This work presents a new interpretation of arterial stiffening caused by smoking based on data published for rat pulmonary arteries. A structurally motivated "four fiber family" constitutive relation was used to fit the available biaxial data and associated best-fit values of material parameters were estimated using multivariate nonlinear regression. Results suggested that arterial stiffening caused by smoking was reflected by consistent increase in an elastin-associated parameter and moreover by marked increase in the collagen-associated parameters. That is, we suggest that arterial stiffening due to cigarette smoking appears to be isotropic, which may allow simpler phenomenological models to capture these effects using a single stiffening parameter similar to the approach in isotropic continuum damage mechanics. There is a pressing need, however, for more detailed histological information coupled with more complete biaxial mechanical data for a broader range of systemic arteries.

U2 - 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2011.01.032

DO - 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2011.01.032

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0021-9290

VL - 44

SP - 1209

EP - 1211

JO - Journal of Biomechanics

JF - Journal of Biomechanics

IS - 6

ER -