Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is associated with structural and mechanical changes in the pulmonary vascular bed that increase right ventricular (RV) afterload. These changes, characterized by narrowing and stiffening, occur in both proximal and distal pulmonary arteries (PAs). An important consequence of arterial narrowing is increased pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). Arterial stiffening, wh...

BACKGROUND Stiffening of the aortic wall is a phenomenon consistently observed in age and in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). However, its role in AAA pathophysiology is largely undefined. METHODS AND RESULTS Using an established murine elastase-induced AAA model, we demonstrate that segmental aortic stiffening precedes aneurysm growth. Finite-element analysis reveals that early stiffening of...

Biological processes are dynamic in nature, and growing evidence suggests that matrix stiffening is particularly decisive during development, wound healing and disease; yet, nearly all in vitro models are static. Here we introduce a step-wise approach, addition then light-mediated crosslinking, to fabricate hydrogels that stiffen (for example, ~3-30 kPa) in the presence of cells, and investigat...

Abstract Size effects decisively influence the properties of materials at small length scales. In context mechanical properties, trend ‘smaller is stronger’ has been well established. This statement refers to an almost universal increased strength with decreasing size. A strong size on elastic also widely reported, albeit without a clear trend. However, nanostructure shape critically neglected....

Systemic hypertension is a risk factor for many diseases affecting the heart, brain, and kidneys. It has long been thought that hypertension leads to a thickening and stiffening of central arteries (ie, stiffness is a consequence), whereas more recent evidence suggests that stiffening precedes hypertension (ie, stiffness is a cause). We submit, however, that consideration of the wall biomechani...

Carotid stiffening is considered an important element in the pathogenesis of cerebrovascular diseases. These include stroke as well as vascular dementia and depression. However, results of individual studies evaluating the association between carotid stiffening and incident stroke have been inconsistent. Therefore, we have conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis, showing that carotid st...

The stiffness of hydrogels is crucial for their application. Nature's hydrogels become stiffer as they are strained. This stiffness is not constant but increases when the gel is strained. This stiffening is used, for instance, by cells that actively strain their environment to modulate their function. When optimized, such strain-stiffening materials become extremely sensitive and very responsiv...

For cellular bodies involving large elastic deformations, mesoscopic continuum models that take into account the interplay between the geometry and the microstructural responses of the constituents are developed, analysed and compared with finiteelement simulations of cellular structures with different architecture. For these models, constitutive restrictions for the physical plausibility of th...

On the basis of simulations carried out with a finite element biomechanical model of the face, the influence of the muscle stress stiffening effect was studied for the protrusion/rounding of the lips produced with the Orbicularis Oris (OO). It is shown that the stress stiffening effect influences lip shape. When stress stiffening is modeled, the variation in the crucial geometrical characterist...