Empirically Determined Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Mechano-Adaptation Law.

Cardiovascular disease can alter the mechanical environment of the vascular system, leading to mechano-adaptive growth and remodeling. Predictive models of arterial mechano-adaptation could improve patient treatments and outcomes in cardiovascular disease. Vessel-scale mechano-adaptation includes remodeling of both the cells and extracellular matrix.

Cellular Microbiaxial Stretching to Measure a Single-Cell Strain Energy Density Function.

The stress in a cell due to extracellular mechanical stimulus is determined by its mechanical properties, and the structural organization of many adherent cells suggests that their properties are anisotropic. This anisotropy may significantly influence the cells' mechanotransductive response to complex loads, and has important implications for development of accurate models of tissue biomechanics. Standard methods for measuring cellular mechanics report linear moduli that cannot capture large-deformation anisotropic properties, which in a continuum mechanics framework are best described by a strain energy density function (SED).

Vascular smooth muscle cell functional contractility depends on extracellular mechanical properties.

Vascular smooth muscle cells' primary function is to maintain vascular homeostasis through active contraction and relaxation. In diseases such as hypertension and atherosclerosis, this function is inhibited concurrent to changes in the mechanical environment surrounding vascular smooth muscle cells. It is well established that cell function and extracellular mechanics are interconnected; variations in substrate modulus affect cell migration, proliferation, and differentiation.

Microfluidic Genipin Deposition Technique for Extended Culture of Micropatterned Vascular Muscular Thin Films.

The chronic nature of vascular disease progression requires the development of experimental techniques that simulate physiologic and pathologic vascular behaviors on disease-relevant time scales. Previously, microcontact printing has been used to fabricate two-dimensional functional arterial mimics through patterning of extracellular matrix protein as guidance cues for tissue organization. Vascular muscular thin films utilized these mimics to assess functional contractility.

Smooth muscle architecture within cell-dense vascular tissues influences functional contractility.

The role of vascular smooth muscle architecture in the function of healthy and dysfunctional vessels is poorly understood. We aimed at determining the relationship between vascular smooth muscle architecture and contractile output using engineered vascular tissues. We utilized microcontact printing and a microfluidic cell seeding technique to provide three different initial seeding conditions, with the aim of influencing the cellular architecture within the tissue.

Long-term vascular contractility assay using genipin-modified muscular thin films.

Vascular disease is a leading cause of death globally and typically manifests chronically due to long-term maladaptive arterial growth and remodeling. To date, there is no in vitro technique for studying vascular function over relevant disease time courses that both mimics in vivo-like tissue structure and provides a simple readout of tissue stress. We aimed to extend tissue viability in our muscular thin film contractility assay by modifying the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate with micropatterned genipin, allowing extracellular matrix turnover without cell loss.