Mechano-chemo-biological model of atherosclerosis formation based on the outside-in theory

authored by: Meike Gierig, Alexandros Tragoudas, Axel Haverich, Peter Wriggers
Abstract: Atherosclerosis is a disease in blood vessels that often results in plaque formation and lumen narrowing. It is an inflammatory response of the tissue caused by disruptions in the vessel wall nourishment. Blood vessels are nourished by nutrients originating from the blood of the lumen. In medium-sized and larger vessels, nutrients are additionally provided from outside through a network of capillaries called vasa vasorum. It has recently been hypothesized (Haverich in Circulation 135:205–207, 2017) that the root of atherosclerotic diseases is the malfunction of the vasa vasorum. This, so-called outside-in theory, is supported by a recently developed numerical model (Soleimani et al. in Arch Comput Methods Eng 28:4263–4282, 2021) accounting for the inflammation initiation in the adventitial layer of the blood vessel. Building on the previous findings, this work proposes an extended material model for atherosclerosis formation that is based on the outside-in theory. Beside the description of growth kinematics and nutrient diffusion, the roles of monocytes, macrophages, foam cells, smooth muscle cells and collagen are accounted for in a nonlinear continuum mechanics framework. Cells are activated due to a lack of vessel wall nourishment and proliferate, migrate, differentiate and synthesize collagen, leading to the formation of a plaque. Numerical studies show that the onset of atherosclerosis can qualitatively be reproduced and back the new theory.
Organisation(s): Institute of Continuum Mechanics
Institute of Mechanics and Computational Mechanics
External Organisation(s): Hannover Medical School (MHH)
Type: Article
Journal: Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology
Volume: 23
Pages: 539-552
No. of pages: 14
ISSN: 1617-7959
Publication date: 04.2024
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Biotechnology, Modelling and Simulation, Mechanical Engineering
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-023-01790-7 (Access: Open)
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@article{c2672a302a814f79bfa23d826fc90bd5,
title = "Mechano-chemo-biological model of atherosclerosis formation based on the outside-in theory",
abstract = "Atherosclerosis is a disease in blood vessels that often results in plaque formation and lumen narrowing. It is an inflammatory response of the tissue caused by disruptions in the vessel wall nourishment. Blood vessels are nourished by nutrients originating from the blood of the lumen. In medium-sized and larger vessels, nutrients are additionally provided from outside through a network of capillaries called vasa vasorum. It has recently been hypothesized (Haverich in Circulation 135:205–207, 2017) that the root of atherosclerotic diseases is the malfunction of the vasa vasorum. This, so-called outside-in theory, is supported by a recently developed numerical model (Soleimani et al. in Arch Comput Methods Eng 28:4263–4282, 2021) accounting for the inflammation initiation in the adventitial layer of the blood vessel. Building on the previous findings, this work proposes an extended material model for atherosclerosis formation that is based on the outside-in theory. Beside the description of growth kinematics and nutrient diffusion, the roles of monocytes, macrophages, foam cells, smooth muscle cells and collagen are accounted for in a nonlinear continuum mechanics framework. Cells are activated due to a lack of vessel wall nourishment and proliferate, migrate, differentiate and synthesize collagen, leading to the formation of a plaque. Numerical studies show that the onset of atherosclerosis can qualitatively be reproduced and back the new theory.",
keywords = "Atherosclerosis, Finite element method, Mechanobiology, Outside-in theory",
author = "Meike Gierig and Alexandros Tragoudas and Axel Haverich and Peter Wriggers",
note = "Funding Information: P. Wriggers gratefully acknowledges the support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - SFB/TRR-298-SIIRI - Project-ID 426335750. ",
year = "2024",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1007/s10237-023-01790-7",
language = "English",
volume = "23",
pages = "539--552",
journal = "Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology",
issn = "1617-7959",
publisher = "Springer Verlag",
number = "2",
}