Carmo Gustavo P, Szumiejko Adrianna, Fernandes Fábio A O, Alves de Sousa Ricardo J, MacManus David B
School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; BRAIN Lab, School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation (TEMA), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Campus Universitário de Santiago, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal; LASI-Intelligent Systems Associate Laboratory, Portugal.
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Lukasiewicza 7/9, 50-371, Wroclaw, Poland.
J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2025 Sep;169:107073. doi: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2025.107073. Epub 2025 May 20.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world's leading cause of death. Long associated with ageing, CVD risk factors are increasing in young people, and in Europe, more women die from CVD than men. However, women are underrepresented in CVD research despite emerging evidence suggesting that the manifestation and presentation of CVD are sex specific. The underlying mechanism of this sex specific phenomenon remains unknown and is likely to encompass biomechanical and pathophysiological factors, including hormones, vessel morphology, hemodynamics, and vascular compliance. Previously, sex differences have been investigated for arterial mechanical properties, morphologies, and physiology. However, the synergistic effects of these sex differences on arterial biomechanics have never been considered. The aim of this study was to investigate the synergistic effects of sex specific artery biomechanics (constitutive properties), and physiology (morphology, blood pressure) on resultant mechanical behaviour. Age and sex specific artery finite element models were developed to achieve this aim. These models were used to determine the sex and age specific biomechanics of arteries under physiological loading conditions. The results from our simulations show: (i) The male model had higher values than the female model across all mechanical metrics in the young group; (ii) the male model had higher stress values and lower strain values than the female model in the old group; (iii) the mechanical metrics' values increased with age in both male and female models. However, these values increased by much larger percentages in the female models than in the male models; and (iv) these findings should be considered in future cardiovascular research.
心血管疾病（CVD）是全球首要死因。长期以来，CVD风险因素一直与衰老相关，但在年轻人中这些因素也在增加，而且在欧洲，死于CVD的女性比男性更多。然而，尽管有新证据表明CVD的表现具有性别特异性，但女性在CVD研究中的代表性不足。这种性别特异性现象的潜在机制尚不清楚，可能涉及生物力学和病理生理学因素，包括激素、血管形态、血流动力学和血管顺应性。此前，已经对动脉的力学特性、形态和生理学方面的性别差异进行了研究。然而，从未考虑过这些性别差异对动脉生物力学的协同作用。本研究的目的是调查性别特异性动脉生物力学（本构特性）和生理学（形态、血压）对最终力学行为的协同作用。为实现这一目标，建立了年龄和性别特异性动脉有限元模型。这些模型用于确定生理负荷条件下动脉的性别和年龄特异性生物力学。我们的模拟结果显示：（i）在年轻组中，男性模型在所有力学指标上的值均高于女性模型；（ii）在老年组中，男性模型的应力值高于女性模型，而应变值低于女性模型；（iii）男性和女性模型的力学指标值均随年龄增加。然而，女性模型中这些值的增加百分比远高于男性模型；（iv）这些发现应在未来的心血管研究中予以考虑。
