Huang Siyao, Huang Hsiao-Ying Shadow
a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department , North Carolina State University , 3002 EBIII, Campus Box 7910, 911 Oval Drive, Raleigh , NC 27695-7910 , USA.
Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin. 2014 Nov;17(15):1696-704. doi: 10.1080/10255842.2013.763937. Epub 2013 Mar 12.
This study presents an image-based finite element analysis incorporating histological photomicrographs of heart valve tissues. We report stress fields inside heart valve tissues, where heterogeneously distributed collagen fibres are responsible for transmitting forces into cells. Linear isotropic and anisotropic tissue material property models are incorporated to quantify the overall stress distributions in heart valve tissues. By establishing an effective predictive method with new computational tools and by performing virtual experiments on the heart valve tissue photomicrographs, we clarify how stresses are transferred from matrix to cell. The results clearly reveal the roles of heterogeneously distributed collagen fibres in mitigating stress developments inside heart valve tissues. Moreover, most local peak stresses occur around cell nuclei, suggesting that higher stress may be mediated by cells for biomechanical regulations.
