title: Strong correlation between early stage atherosclerosis and electromechanical coupling of aorta.
abstract: Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases that are responsible for many deaths in the world, and the early diagnosis of atherosclerosis is highly desirable. The existing imaging methods, however, are not capable of detecting the early stage of atherosclerosis development due to their limited spatial resolution. Using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), we show that the piezoelectric response of an aortic wall increases as atherosclerosis advances, while the stiffness of the aorta shows a less evident correlation with atherosclerosis. Furthermore, we show that there is strong correlation between the coercive electric field necessary to switch the polarity of the artery and the development of atherosclerosis. Thus by measuring the electromechanical coupling of the aortic wall, it is possible to probe atherosclerosis at the early stage of its development, not only improving the spatial resolution by orders of magnitude, but also providing comprehensive quantitative information on the biomechanical properties of the artery.
authors.affiliation: College of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Composites and Devices, Chongqing University of Science & Technology, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: X Y
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanobiomechanics, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China. jjli@uw.edu hr.zheng@siat.ac.cn.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanobiomechanics, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China. jjli@uw.edu hr.zheng@siat.ac.cn.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Q N
authors.initials: QN
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanobiomechanics, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China. jjli@uw.edu hr.zheng@siat.ac.cn.
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanobiomechanics, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China. jjli@uw.edu hr.zheng@siat.ac.cn.
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D018450:Disease Progression; D004563:Electrochemistry; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E