Navid Mohammad Mirzaei¹, Pak-Wing Fok^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 32-33, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07088

Abstract Atherosclerosis is a disease considered to be one of the leading causes of death. Understanding the behavior and dynamics of the vessel wall before and after atherosclerosis has been a motivation for many studies. We investigate this phenomenon as a combination of mechanical deformation of the vessel wall along with cell and chemical dynamics that occur within. We consider the vessel wall as a growing hyperelastic material with three layers; intima,media and adventitia. Each of these layers have a different set of mechanical properties [1]. To describe tissue growth, we use morphoelasticity as the mathematical framework. The growth tensor in… More >

Yifan Yin¹, Chunliu He¹, Biao Xu², Zhiyong Li^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 57-57, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05732

Abstract The tissue composition and morphological structure of atherosclerotic plaques determine its stability or vulnerability. Intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) has rapidly become the method of choice for assessing the pathology of the coronary arterial wall in vivo due to its superior resolution. However, in clinical practice, the analysis of plaque composition of OCT images mainly relies on the interpretation of images by well-trained experts, which is a time-consuming, labor-intensive procedure and it is also subjective. The purpose of this study is to use the Convolutional neural network (CNN) method to automatically extract the best feature information from the OCT images… More >

Muyi Guo¹, Yan Cai¹, Zhiyong Li^1,2,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 49-49, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05727

Abstract Observational studies have identified angiogenesis from the adventitial vasa vasorum and intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) as critical factors in atherosclerotic plaque progression and destabilization. Here we propose a mathematical model incorporating intraplaque neovascularization and hemodynamic calculation for the quantitative evaluation of atherosclerotic plaque hemorrhage. An angiogenic microvasculature based on histology of a patient’s carotid plaque is generated by two-dimensional nine-point model of endothelial cell migration. Three key cells (endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and macrophages) and three key chemicals (vascular endothelial growth factors, extracellular matrix and matrix metalloproteinase) are involved in the intraplaque angiogenesis model, and described by the reaction-diffusion partial… More >

Zhiyong Li^1,2,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 29-30, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.06308

Abstract In this article, we summarize our previous work in imaging-based computational modelling and simulation of the interaction between blood flow and atherosclerotic plaque. We also discussed our recent developments in multiphysical modelling of plaque progression and destabilization. Significance and translation of the modelling study to clinical practice are discussed in order to better assess plaque vulnerability and accurately predict a possible rupture. More >

J. J. Wentzel^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 7-8, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05696

Abstract The pathophysiology of atherosclerosis is complex and multifactorial, involving systemic risk factors and biomechanical stimuli. Atherosclerotic plaques predominantly form in regions that are exposed to low shear stress of the blood at the vessel wall, whereas regions of moderate and high shear stress are generally protected. For more than 20 years, my research group performs studies to investigate the role of shear stress in atherosclerotic plaque formation and rupture in coronary and carotid arteries of patients and laboratory animals. For that reason, new technology was developed to 3D reconstruct arteries based on fusion of multiple invasive and non-invasive imaging modalities.… More >

S. NICOVANI , M.I. RUDOLPH

BIOCELL, Vol.26, No.1, pp. 15-24, 2002, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2002.26.015

Abstract We examined the presence of estrogen receptors (ER) in vascular mast cells and a possible genomic effect of estrogens on the expression of mast cell (MC) mediators such as chymase, TNFα, NOS and IL-10, which are known to affect the course of atherosclerosis. Immunocytochemical detection of mast cell tryptase and the co-localization of ERs in MCs from abdominal aortic vessels from 10 fertile woman, 10 postmenopausal women and 15 men was performed. The genomic expression of IL-10, TNFα, and NOS was analyzed by RT-PCR and chymase activity by spectrophotometry after 24 h incubation with 17-β estradiol (0.2-0.5 ng/mL) in rat… More >

Dalin Tang¹, Chun Yang², Satya Atluri³

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.18, No.3, pp. 67-68, 2011, DOI:10.3970/icces.2011.018.067

Abstract Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Many victims of the disease died suddenly without prior symptoms. It is a great challenge for clinicians and researchers to develop screening techniques and assessment methodologies to identify those patients for early treatment and prevention of the fatal clinical event. Considerable effort has been devoted investigating mechanisms governing atherosclerotic plaque progression and rupture [Friedman, Bargeron, Deters, Hutchins and Mark (1987); Friedman and Giddens (2005); Giddens, Zarins, Glagov, S. (1993); Ku, Giddens, Zarins and Glagov (1985); Gibson et al. (1993); Liu and Tang (2010); Stone et al. (2003); Yang, Tang, Atluri et… More >

Yidan Chen^#,1, Kang Zhang^#,1, Juhui Qiu¹, Shicheng He¹, Junyang Huang², Lu Huang¹, Dongyu Jia³, Bo Ling¹, Da Sun⁴, Xiang Xie¹, Tieying Yin^*,1, Guixue Wang^*,1

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.14, No.2, pp. 83-100, 2017, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2017.014.081

Abstract Abnormal shear stress in the blood vessel is an important stimulating factor for the formation of angiogenesis and vulnerable plaques. This paper intended to explore the role of shear stress-regulated Id1 in angiogenesis. First, we applied a carotid artery ring ligation to create local stenosis in ApoE^-/- mice. Then, 3D geometry of the vessel network was reconstructed based on MRI, and our analysis of computational fluid dynamics revealed that wall shear stress of the proximal region was much higher than that of the distal region. In addition, results from histological staining of the proximal region found more vulnerable-probe plaques with… More >

Xueying Huang^*, Chun Yang^†, Chun Yuan^‡, Fei Liu^‡, Gador Canton^‡, Jie Zheng^§, Pamela K. Woodard^§, Gregorio A. Sicard^¶, Dalin Tang^||

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.6, No.2, pp. 121-134, 2009, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2009.006.121

Abstract Image-based computational models for atherosclerotic plaques have been developed to perform mechanical analysis to quantify critical flow and stress/strain conditions related to plaque rupture which often leads directly to heart attack or stroke. An important modeling issue is how to determine zero stress state from in vivo plaque geometries. This paper presents a method to quantify human carotid artery axial and inner circumferential shrinkages by using patient-specific ex vivo and in vivo MRI images. A shrink-stretch process based on patient-specific in vivo plaque morphology and shrinkage data was introduced to shrink the in vivo geometry first to find the zero-stress… More >

Chun Yang^1,2, Dalin Tang², Satya Atluri³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.72, No.1, pp. 53-78, 2011, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2011.072.053

Abstract Previously, we introduced a computational procedure based on three-dimensional meshless generalized finite difference (MGFD) method and serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to quantify patient-specific carotid atherosclerotic plaque growth functions and simulate plaque progression. Structure-only models were used in our previous report. In this paper, fluid-stricture interaction (FSI) was added to improve on prediction accuracy. One participating patient was scanned three times (T1, T2, and T3, at intervals of about 18 months) to obtain plaque progression data. Blood flow was assumed to laminar, Newtonian, viscous and incompressible. The Navier-Stokes equations with arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation were used as the governing… More >