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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Blood Flow Regulates Atherosclerosis Progression And Regression, Morgan A. Schake
Blood Flow Regulates Atherosclerosis Progression And Regression, Morgan A. Schake
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Atherosclerosis is the most prevalent pathology of cardiovascular disease with no known cure. Despite the many systemic risk factors for atherosclerosis, plaques do not form randomly in the vasculature. Instead, they form around bifurcations and the inner curvature of highly curving arterial segments that contain so-called disturbed blood flow that is low in magnitude and multidirectional over the cardiac cycle. Conversely, straight, non-bifurcated arterial segments that contain moderate-to-high and unidirectional (i.e., normal) blood flow are protected from plaque development. Thus, blood flow is a key regulator of atherosclerosis that may be able to be leveraged to develop new therapeutics. Towards …
Temporally And Spatially Resolved Quantification Of Hemodynamic Forces And Endothelial Mechanics, Lori M. Lambert
Temporally And Spatially Resolved Quantification Of Hemodynamic Forces And Endothelial Mechanics, Lori M. Lambert
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The endothelium is a thin layer of endothelial cells that line the interior surface of an artery. Due to their direct contact with blood flow, endothelial cells experience varying hemodynamic forces and respond to these forces by altering their morphology. When plaque and other substances accumulate in the walls of arteries, i.e., atherosclerosis, endothelial cells have abnormal responses to blood flow. Studying atherosclerosis progression is, therefore, a two-fold investigation into 1) the hemodynamic forces that cause endothelial responses, and 2) the biological and mechanical responses of endothelial cells. The ultimate goal of this study was to develop an experimental …