A pilot study on biaxial mechanical, collagen microstructural, and morphological characterizations of a resected human intracranial aneurysm tissue
Open Access
- 10 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Scientific Reports
- Vol. 11 (1), 1-15
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82991-x
Abstract
Intracranial aneurysms (ICAs) are focal dilatations that imply a weakening of the brain artery. Incidental rupture of an ICA is increasingly responsible for significant mortality and morbidity in the American’s aging population. Previous studies have quantified the pressure-volume characteristics, uniaxial mechanical properties, and morphological features of human aneurysms. In this pilot study, for the first time, we comprehensively quantified the mechanical, collagen fiber microstructural, and morphological properties of one resected human posterior inferior cerebellar artery aneurysm. The tissue from the dome of a right posterior inferior cerebral aneurysm was first mechanically characterized using biaxial tension and stress relaxation tests. Then, the load-dependent collagen fiber architecture of the aneurysm tissue was quantified using an in-house polarized spatial frequency domain imaging system. Finally, optical coherence tomography and histological procedures were used to quantify the tissue’s microstructural morphology. Mechanically, the tissue was shown to exhibit hysteresis, a nonlinear stress-strain response, and material anisotropy. Moreover, the unloaded collagen fiber architecture of the tissue was predominantly aligned with the testing Y-direction and rotated towards the X-direction under increasing equibiaxial loading. Furthermore, our histological analysis showed a considerable damage to the morphological integrity of the tissue, including lack of elastin, intimal thickening, and calcium deposition. This new unified characterization framework can be extended to better understand the mechanics-microstructure interrelationship of aneurysm tissues at different time points of the formation or growth. Such specimen-specific information is anticipated to provide valuable insight that may improve our current understanding of aneurysm growth and rupture potential.Funding Information
- National Science Foundation (GRF2019254233)
- Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (HR-18-002)
- American Heart Association (16SDG27760143)
This publication has 70 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evaluation of a Change Detection Methodology by Means of Binary Thresholding Algorithms and Informational Fusion ProcessesSensors, 2012
- Modelling evolution and the evolving mechanical environment of saccular cerebral aneurysmsBiomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, 2010
- Effect of freezing on the passive mechanical properties of arterial samplesJournal of Biomedical Science and Engineering, 2010
- The Effect of Material Model Formulation in the Stress Analysis of Abdominal Aortic AneurysmsAnnals of Biomedical Engineering, 2009
- A theoretical model for fibroblast-controlled growth of saccular cerebral aneurysmsJournal of Theoretical Biology, 2009
- Fluid–structure interaction modeling of a patient-specific cerebral aneurysm: influence of structural modelingComputational Mechanics, 2008
- Complex Hemodynamics at the Apex of an Arterial Bifurcation Induces Vascular Remodeling Resembling Cerebral Aneurysm InitiationStroke, 2007
- Hyperelastic modelling of arterial layers with distributed collagen fibre orientationsJournal of The Royal Society Interface, 2005
- Size of cerebral aneurysms and related factors in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhageSurgical Neurology, 2004
- Confirmation of chromosome 7q11 locus for predisposition to intracranial aneurysmHuman Genetics, 2004