Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the resulting brain damage and dysfunction are one of the leading causes of death for individuals under 40 worldwide. TBI can occur due to any external force causing deformation in the brain, and it involves a complicated timeline of the initial mechanical damage followed by a subsequent inflammatory response. The details and extent of the effects...
Several methods exist for cell-level simulation of blood, due to the undeniable interest this topic holds in the biomedical field. Nevertheless, the amount of computational resources required for these resolved methods limits their application to large-scale problems. On the other hand, the single-phase approximation of blood as a non-Newtonian liquid, while attaining fast...
This numerical study employs a computational model of human hepatic blood flow to investigate the hemodynamic consequences of cirrhosis. The liver receives blood through a dual-inlet system (portal vein and hepatic artery) that perfuses a complex network of sinusoids; however, cirrhosis-induced fibrosis distorts these channels, increasing hydraulic resistance. In turn, portal...
The osteocyte network embedded in bone tissues plays a central role in the control of bone adaptation to mechanical loads and micro-damage repair. However, much remains to be understood about the precise mechanisms by which the osteocyte network regulates bone formation and bone resorption based on the propagation of biochemical signals emitted in response to mechanical stimulus...
Mechanical ventilation is a life-saving therapeutic intervention for patients with impaired pulmonary function, yet it carries the risk of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). At bedside, physicians face the challenge of keeping lung tissue in a healthy state while ensuring sufficient gas exchange. Gas exchange occurs between the air in the alveoli and the dense network of...
We introduce an innovative lumped-parameter model of the aortic valve, designed to efficiently simulate the impact of valve dynamics on blood flow. Our reduced model includes the elastic effects associated with the leaflets’ curvature and the stress exchanged with the blood flow. The introduction of a lumped-parameter model based on momentum balance entails an easier calibration...
A finite-element-based algorithm for the in silico construction of a novel tri-tube heart valve was developed to facilitate optimization of the leaflet geometry. An anisotropic hyperelastic model fitted to high-strain rate planar equibiaxial tension and compression data was used to approximate the nonlinear and anisotropic material behavior of biologically-engineered tubes and...
Craniosynostosis (CS) is the premature closure of craniofacial joints known as sutures. Typically, this condition is treated by numerous invasive surgical interventions. Previously we investigated the level of mechanical strain induced due to frontal bone loading on a mouse model of this condition in light of a minimally invasive cyclic bone loading, showing success in retaining...
Joint trauma often leads to articular cartilage degeneration and post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). Pivotal determinants include trauma-induced excessive tissue strains that damage cartilage cells. As a downstream effect, these damaged cells can trigger cartilage degeneration via oxidative stress, cell death, and proteolytic tissue degeneration. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has...
Cerebral autoregulation plays a key physiological role by limiting blood flow changes in the face of pressure fluctuations. Although the underlying vascular cellular processes are chemo-mechanically driven, estimating the associated haemodynamic forces in vivo remains extremely difficult and uncertain. In this work, we propose a novel computational methodology for evaluating the...
Voronoi tessellation is a powerful technique for designing random structures for bone tissue engineering applications. In this study, an innovative algorithm for scaffold design that controls trabecular orientation while maintaining an overall random architecture is presented. Morphological analyses and numerical models were employed to comprehensively characterize the scaffolds...
Musculoskeletal function is pivotal to long-term health. However, various patient groups develop torsional deformities, leading to clinical, functional problems. Understanding the interplay between movement pattern, bone loading and growth is crucial for improving the functional mobility of these patients and preserving long-term health. Multi-scale simulations in combination...
Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), particularly urinary incontinence (UI), represent a significant global health challenge, affecting millions of patients worldwide. The artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) remains one of the most effective intervention for severe UI, with its design relying on a detailed understanding of the urethral biomechanics. Given the ethical and...
Tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) are promising valve replacements due to their potential to regenerate into living heart valves, capable of growth and adaptation. Previous TEHVs showed promising results, but often developed progressive leaflet retraction in the long term. In a prior proof-of-concept study, we demonstrated that a novel geometry with more native-like...
This study aimed to characterize the altered hemodynamics and wall mechanics in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms (ATAA) by employing fully coupled two-way fluid–structure interaction (FSI) analyses. Our FSI models incorporated hyperelastic wall mechanical properties, prestress, and patient-specific inlet velocity profiles (IVP) extracted from 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging...
Finite element (FE) models of the human head are important injury assessment tools but developing a high-quality, hexahedral-meshed FE head model without compromising geometric accuracy is a challenging task. Important brain features, such as the cortical folds and ventricles, were captured only in a handful of FE head models that were primarily developed from two meshing...
This study was focused on developing an optimisation-based methodology to create customised solid–liquid composite (SLC) orthotic insoles. The goal was to reduce peak plantar pressures through gait through a dynamic numerical optimisation. A gait simulation was developed through a series of numerical models with increasing complexity. These models were validated against...
Computational models are commonly used to investigate how the cortical bone microstructure affects fracture resistance; recently, phase-field models have been introduced for this purpose. However, experimentally measured material parameters for the microstructural tissues are lacking. Moreover, as no validation studies have been published, it remains unclear to what extent...
In this work, we present the derivation of a novel model for the myocardium that incorporates the underlying poroelastic nature of the material constituents as well as the electrical conductivity. The myocardium has a microstructure consisting of a poroelastic extracellular matrix with embedded poroelastic myocytes, i.e. a double poroelastic material. Due to the sharp length...
Laser ablation techniques employ fast hyperthermia mechanisms for diseased-tissue removal, characterized by high selectivity, thus preserving the surrounding healthy tissue. The associated modeling approaches are based on classical Fourier-type laws, though a limited predictivity is observed, particularly at fast time scales. Moreover, limited knowledge is available for cardiac...
Accurate modeling of cardiovascular tissues is crucial for understanding and predicting their behavior in various physiological and pathological conditions. In this study, we specifically focus on the pulmonary artery in the context of the Ross procedure, using neural networks to discover the most suitable material model. The Ross procedure is a complex cardiac surgery where the...
Recently, the present authors proposed a three-dimensional computational model for the transit of suspended cancer cells through a microchannel (Wang et al. in Biomech Model Mechanobiol 22: 1129-1143, 2023). The cell model takes into account the three major subcellular components: A viscoelastic membrane that represents the lipid bilayer supported by the underlying cell cortex, a...
Percutaneous coronary interventions in highly calcified atherosclerotic lesions are challenging due to the high mechanical stiffness that significantly restricts stent expansion. Intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) is a novel vessel preparation technique with the potential to improve interventional outcomes by inducing microscopic and macroscopic cracks to enhance stent expansion...
The heart is a dynamic pump whose function is influenced by its mechanical properties. The viscoelastic properties of the heart, i.e., its ability to exhibit both elastic and viscous characteristics upon deformation, influence cardiac function. Viscoelastic properties change during heart failure (HF), but direct measurements of failing and non-failing myocardial tissue stress...
An ascending aortic aneurysm is an often asymptomatic localized dilatation of the aorta. Aortic rupture is a life-threatening event that occurs when the stress on the aortic wall exceeds its mechanical strength. Therefore, patient-specific finite element models could play an important role in estimating the risk of rupture. This requires not only the geometry of the aorta but...