A detailed mechanical and microstructural analysis of ovine tricuspid valve leaflets.

ABSTRACT: The tricuspid valve ensures unidirectional blood flow from the right atrium to the right ventricle. The three tricuspid leaflets operate within a dynamic stress environment of shear, bending, tensile, and compressive forces, which is cyclically repeated nearly three billion times in a lifetime. Ostensibly, the microstructural and mechanical properties of the tricuspid leaflets have mechanobiologically evolved to optimally support their function under those forces. Yet, how the tricuspid leaflet microstructure determines its mechanical properties and whether this relationship differs between the three leaflets is unknown. Here we perform a microstructural and mechanical analysis in matched ovine tricuspid leaflet samples. We found that the microstructure and mechanical properties vary among

SUBMITTER: Meador WD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7325866 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature