EFFECT OF TISSUE DEHYDRATION ON SMOOTH MUSCLE CELL CONTRACTILITY, COLLAGEN MATRIX STRUCTURE AND OVERALL ARTERY BIOMECHANICS

摘要

Tissue dehydration following mannitol treatment causes stiffening of the artery mechanical response (reduction in toe region) similar to freeze-thaw effects. This suggests that tissue dehydration can be an important mechanism in inducing arterial stiffening. It was also observed in this study that the mannitol treatment increases the collagen denaturation onset while it has no effect on SMC contractility. Freeze-thaw on the other hand, doesn't change the collagen denaturation onset but reduces the SMC contractility (through reduction in viability). The collagen denaturation onset increase seen only post mannitol treatment is possibly due to the additional sugar-collagen interactions which are absent post freeze-thaw. Further study is required to separate out the contributions of SMC viability and collagen stability to the overall biomechanical changes due to freeze-thaw.