Stretch-Induced Intimal Failure in Isolated Cerebral Arteries as a Function of Development.

Recent clinical studies have shown that traumatic brain injury is a significant risk factor for stroke. Motivated to better understand possible mechanisms of this association, we studied subfailure disruption of the intima in overstretched sheep cerebral arteries, as this has been implicated in the increased risk of stroke following blunt cerebrovascular injury. Middle cerebral arteries from four age groups (ranging from fetal to adult) were stretched axially to failure, and intimal disruption was captured with a video camera. All vessels demonstrated intimal disruption prior to catastrophic failure, with nearly all incurring disruption at stretch values well below those at ultimate stress (means of 1.56 and 1.73, respectively); the lowest stretch associated with intimal disruption was 1.29. The threshold of intimal failure was independent of age. Additional analysis showed that disruption included failure of both the endothelium and internal elastic lamina. Although our experiments were conducted at quasi-static rates, the results likely have important implications for vessel function following trauma. Future work should seek to identify subfailure disruption of the cerebrovasculature in head trauma.

Development of Mechanical and Failure Properties in Sheep Cerebral Arteries.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a devastating problem for people of all ages, but the nature of the response to such injury is often different in children than in adults. Cerebral vessel damage and dysfunction are common following TBI, but age-dependent, large-deformation vessel response has not been characterized. Our objective was to investigate the mechanical properties of cerebral arteries as a function of development. Sheep middle cerebral arteries from four age groups (fetal, newborn, juvenile, and adult) were subjected to biaxial loading around physiological conditions and then to failure in the axial direction. Results show little difference among age groups under physiological loading conditions, but response varied significantly with age in response to large axial deformation. Vessels from all age groups reached the same ultimate stretch level, but the amount of stress carried at a given level of stretch increased significantly with age through the developmental period (fetal to juvenile). Our results are the first to identify changes in cerebral vessel response to large deformations with age and may lead to new insights regarding differences in response to TBI with age.

Umbilical cord artery mechanical properties at various gestational ages.

OBJECTIVE: Umbilical cord tissue is naturally available after birth and may provide insight into the health of a newborn. Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a common complication of prematurity that is suspected to be associated with structural deficiency of the vasculature. We are interested in determining whether umbilical vessel properties could be used to indicate increased risk for IVH. As a first step toward this, we investigated umbilical artery properties as a function of gestational age. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 31 umbilical cord specimens were collected from births ranging from 24 to 40 weeks gestation. Specimens were grouped according to gestational age (less than 25, 26-30, 31-35, and 36-40 weeks). Tension tests were performed on axial and circumferential strips obtained from umbilical arteries. Stiffness, corresponding stretch values, and cross-sectional tissue areas were compared using analysis of variance. RESULTS: Stress-stretch curves displayed no apparent differences across the gestational age range. Statistical analysis of stiffness and stretch values suggested no differences between groups (p > 0.05). Significance was shown between cross-sectional areas of some groups. CONCLUSIONS: Mechanical characterization of umbilical arteries suggests that no significant changes in material properties occur in the range of 24 to 40 week gestational age.