title: Towards the modelling of ageing and atherosclerosis effects in ApoE(-/-) mice aortic tissue.
abstract: The goal of this work consists in a quantitative analysis and constitutive modelling of ageing processes associated to plaque formation in mice arteries. Reliable information on the characteristic evolution of pressure-stretch curves due to the ageing effects is extracted from previous inflation test experiments. Furthermore, characteristic age-dependent material parameters are identified on the basis of a continuum-mechanics-based parameter optimisation technique. The results indicate that the aorta-stiffness of the healthy control mice remains basically constant irrespective of the diet-time and age. In contrast, significant differences exist within the material response and in consequence within the material parameters between the ApoE(-/-) and the control mice as well as for the different locations over the aorta which is underlined by our experimental observations. With regard to the temporal evolution of the material parameters, we observe that the material parameters for the ApoE(-/-) mice aortas exhibit a saturation-type increase with respect to age.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mechanics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TU Dortmund, Germany; 3M Deutschland GmbH, Carl-Schurz-Str. 1, D-41453 Neuss, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Waffenschmidt
authors.affiliation: Centro Universitario de la Defensa, Academia General Militar, Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cilla
authors.affiliation: Laboratori de Calcul Numeric (LaCaN), Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sáez
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Embryology and Genetics, Veterinary Faculty, University of Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.affiliation: Applied Mechanics and Bioengineering, Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, CIBER de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mechanics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TU Dortmund, Germany; Division of Solid Mechanics, Lund University, Sweden.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Menzel
authors.affiliation: Applied Mechanics and Bioengineering, Aragón Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, CIBER de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Spain. Electronic address: fany@unizar.es.
authors.forename: Estefanía
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peña
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics*; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D011312:Pressure; D059289:Vascular Stiffness
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E
keywords: Ageing; Anisotropic biological tissues; Parameter identification; Thick-walled tube