Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on the Enzymolytic and Biomechanical Profiles of Abdominal Aortic Adventitia Tissue

The abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is defined as an increase in aortic diameter by more than 50% and is associated with a high risk of rupture and mortality without treatment. The aim of this study is to analyze the role of aortic adventitial collagen photocrosslinking by UV-A irradiation on the biomechanical profile of the aortic wall.

This experimental study is structured in two parts: the first part includes in vitro uniaxial biomechanical evaluation of porcine adventitial tissue subjected to either short-term elastolysis or long-term collagenolysis in an attempt to duplicate two extreme situations as putative stages of aneurysmal degeneration. In the second part, we included biaxial biomechanical evaluation of in vitro human abdominal aortic adventitia and human AAA adventitia specimens. Biomechanical profiles were examined for porcine and human aortic tissue before and after irradiation with UV-A light (365 nm wavelength).

On the porcine aortic sample, the enhancing effect of irradiation was evident both on the tissue subjected to elastolysis, which had a high collagen-to-elastin ratio, and on the tissue subjected to prolonged collagenolysis despite being considerably depleted in collagen. Further, the effect of irradiation was conclusively demonstrated in the human adventitia samples, where significant post-irradiation increases in Cauchy stress (longitudinal axis: p = 0.001, circumferential axis: p = 0.004) and Young's modulus (longitudinal axis: p = 0.03, circumferential axis: p = 0.004) were recorded. Moreover, we have a stronger increase in the strengthening of the AAA adventitia samples following the exposure to UV-A irradiation (p = 0.007) and a statistically significant but not very important increase (p = 0.021) regarding the stiffness in the circumferential axis.

The favorable effect of UV irradiation on the strength and stiffness of degraded aortic adventitia in experimental situations mimicking early and later stages of aneurysmal degeneration is essential for the development and potential success of procedures to prevent aneurysmal ruptures. The experiments on human normal and aneurysmal adventitial tissue confirmed the validity and potential success of a procedure based on exposure to UV-A radiation.