Quantifying the microstructural and biomechanical changes in the porcine ventricles during growth and remodelling

Ahmad, Faizan, Soe, Shwe, Albon, Julie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3029-8245, Errington, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8016-4376 and Theobald, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3227-7130 2023. Quantifying the microstructural and biomechanical changes in the porcine ventricles during growth and remodelling. Acta Biomaterialia 171 , pp. 166-192. 10.1016/j.actbio.2023.09.044

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Abstract

Cardiac tissue growth and remodelling (G & R) occur in response to the changing physiological demands of the heart after birth. The early shift to pulmonary circulation produces an immediate increase in ventricular workload, causing microstructural and biomechanical changes that serve to maintain overall physiological homoeostasis. Such cardiac G & R continues throughout life. Quantifying the tissue's mechanical and microstructural changes because of G & R is of increasing interest, dovetailing with the emerging fields of personalised and precision solutions. This study aimed to determine equibiaxial, and non-equibiaxial extension, stress-relaxation, and the underlying microstructure of the passive porcine ventricles tissue at four time points spanning from neonatal to adulthood. The three-dimensional microstructure was investigated via two-photon excited fluorescence and second-harmonic generation microscopy on optically cleared tissues, describing the 3D orientation, rotation and dispersion of the cardiomyocytes and collagen fibrils. The results revealed that during biomechanical testing, myocardial ventricular tissue possessed non-linear, anisotropic, and viscoelastic behaviour. An increase in stiffness and viscoelasticity was noted for the left and right ventricular free walls from neonatal to adulthood. Microstructural analyses revealed concomitant increases in cardiomyocyte rotation and dispersion. This study provides baseline data, describing the biomechanical and microstructural changes in the left and right ventricular myocardial tissue during G & R, which should prove valuable to researchers in developing age-specific, constitutive models for more accurate computational simulations.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering Optometry and Vision Sciences Medicine
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	1742-7061
Funders:	EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 October 2023
Date of Acceptance:	26 September 2023
Last Modified:	05 Oct 2024 01:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/163017

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