The role of three-dimensionality and alveolar pressure in the distribution and amplification of alveolar stresses.

ABSTRACT: Alveolar stresses are fundamental to enable the respiration process in mammalians and have recently gained increasing attention due to their mechanobiological role in the pathogenesis and development of respiratory diseases. Despite the fundamental physiological role of stresses in the alveolar wall, the determination of alveolar stresses remains challenging, and our current knowledge is largely drawn from 2D studies that idealize the alveolar septal wall as a spring or a planar continuum. Here we study the 3D stress distribution in alveolar walls of normal lungs by combining ex-vivo micro-computed tomography and 3D finite-element analysis. Our results show that alveolar walls are subject to a fully 3D state of stresses rather than to a pure axial stress state. To understand the contributi

SUBMITTER: Sarabia-Vallejos MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6584652 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature