Biomechanical Assessment of Macro-Calcification in Human Carotid Atherosclerosis and Its Impact on Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotype

  • Seime, Till
  • van Wanrooij, Max
  • Karlof, Eva
  • Kronqvist, Malin
  • Johansson, Staffan
  • Matic, Ljubica
  • Gasser, T. Christian
  • Hedin, Ulf
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Publication date
January 2022
Publisher
MDPI AG

Abstract

Intimal calcification and vascular stiffening are predominant features of end-stage atherosclerosis. However, their role in atherosclerotic plaque instability and how the extent and spatial distribution of calcification influence plaque biology remain unclear. We recently showed that extensive macro calcification can be a stabilizing feature of late-stage human lesions, associated with a reacquisition of more differentiated properties of plaque smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. Here, we hypothesized that biomechanical forces related to macro-calcification within plaques influence SMC phenotype and contribute to plaque stabilization. We generated a finite element modeling (FEM) pipeline to assess plaque ti...

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