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Glycosaminoglycans contribute to extracellular matrix fiber recruitment and arterial wall mechanics

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Abstract

Elastic and collagen fibers are well known to be the major load-bearing extracellular matrix (ECM) components of the arterial wall. Studies of the structural components and mechanics of arterial ECM generally focus on elastin and collagen fibers, and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are often neglected. Although GAGs represent only a small component of the vessel wall ECM, they are considerably important because of their diverse functionality and their role in pathological processes. The goal of this study was to study the mechanical and structural contributions of GAGs to the arterial wall. Biaxial tensile testing was paired with multiphoton microscopic imaging of elastic and collagen fibers in order to establish the structure–function relationships of porcine thoracic aorta before and after enzymatic GAG removal. Removal of GAGs results in an earlier transition point of the nonlinear stress–strain curves \((p<0.05)\). However, stiffness was not significantly different after GAG removal treatment, indicating earlier but not absolute stiffening. Multiphoton microscopy showed that when GAGs are removed, the adventitial collagen fibers are straighter, and both elastin and collagen fibers are recruited at lower levels of strain, in agreement with the mechanical change. The amount of stress relaxation also decreased in GAG-depleted arteries \((p<0.05)\). These findings suggest that the interaction between GAGs and other ECM constituents plays an important role in the mechanics of the arterial wall, and GAGs should be considered in addition to elastic and collagen fibers when studying arterial function.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported, in part, by a Grant from National Science Foundation (CMMI 1463390) and a predoctoral training grant from National Institutes of Health (2T32HL007969).

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The authors confirm that there are no conflicts of interest associated with this publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Jeffrey M. Mattson & Yanhang Zhang

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Raphaël Turcotte & Yanhang Zhang

  3. Advanced Microscopy Program, Center for Systems Biology, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Raphaël Turcotte

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  1. Jeffrey M. Mattson
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Correspondence to Yanhang Zhang.

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Mattson, J.M., Turcotte, R. & Zhang, Y. Glycosaminoglycans contribute to extracellular matrix fiber recruitment and arterial wall mechanics. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 16, 213–225 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-016-0811-4

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