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Comparison between mechanical properties of human saphenous vein and umbilical vein
Borhan Alhosseini Hamedani1, Mahdi Navidbakhsh, Hossein Ahmadi Tafti
1Biomechanics Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. borhanalhoseini@gmail.com
Insights
The human saphenous vein is stiffer and less elastic than the umbilical vein, making it more suitable for coronary artery bypass grafts. This study investigated the mechanical properties of these vessels for improved graft outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Vascular Biology
- Materials Science
Background:
- Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is a leading cause of mortality, with Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery being a common treatment.
- The long-term success of CABG depends on the mechanical properties of the blood vessels used as grafts.
- Human umbilical veins have not been extensively studied for their suitability in CABG procedures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the mechanical properties, specifically stiffness and elasticity, of human umbilical veins and saphenous veins.
- To evaluate the potential of human umbilical veins as an alternative graft material for CABG.
Main Methods:
- Histological analysis to determine fiber content of both umbilical and saphenous veins.
- Mechanical testing to measure force-displacement relationships and derive stress-strain curves.
- Mathematical modeling using a fourth-order polynomial to characterize the non-linear behavior of the vessels.
Main Results:
- Saphenous veins exhibit significantly higher stiffness and lower stretchability compared to umbilical veins.
- Both vessels demonstrate greater stiffness in the longitudinal direction than in the circumferential direction.
- The circumferential stretch ratio is considerably higher than the longitudinal stretch ratio for both vein types.
Conclusions:
- The higher stiffness of the saphenous vein aligns with the high blood pressure in the aorta, suggesting better suitability for bypass grafts.
- The findings indicate that saphenous veins are mechanically superior to umbilical veins for CABG applications.
- Lower elastin and collagen content in umbilical veins contribute to their reduced stiffness compared to saphenous veins.
Background:
As a main cause of mortality in developed countries, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is known as silent killer with a considerable cost to be dedicated for its treatment. Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) is a common remedy for CAD for which different blood vessels are used as a detour. There is a lack of knowledge about mechanical properties of human blood vessels used for CABG, and while these properties have a great impact on long-term patency of a CABG. Thus, studying these properties, especially those of human umbilical veins which have not been considered yet, looks utterly necessary.
Methods:
Umbilical vein, as well as human Saphenous vein, are respectively obtained after cesarean and CABG. First, histological tests were performed to investigate different fiber contents of the samples. Having prepared samples carefully, force-displacement results of samples were rendered to real stress-strain measurements and then a fourth-order polynomial was used to prove the non-linear behavior of these two vessels.
Results:
Results were analyzed in two directions, i.e. circumferentially and longitudinally, which then were compared with each other. The comparison between stiffness and elasticity of these veins showed that Saphenous vein's stiffness is much higher than that of umbilical vein and also, it is less stretchable. Furthermore, for both vessels, longitudinal stiffness was higher than that of circumferential and in stark contrast, stretch ratio in circumferential direction came much higher than longitudinal orientation.
Conclusion:
Blood pressure is very high in the region of aorta, so there should be a stiff blood vessel in this area and previous investigations showed that stiffer vessels would have a better influence on the flow of bypass. To this end, the current study has made an attempt to compare these two blood vessels' stiffness, finding that Saphenous vein is stiffer than umbilical vein which is somehow as stiff as rat aortic vessels. As blood vessel's stiffness is directly related to elastin and mainly collagen content, results showed the lower amount of these two contents in umbilical vein regarding Saphenous vein.
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