A simple, non-invasive technique to monitor the biomechanical properties of ex vivo cultured blood vessels

In an effort to elucidate the mechanical and biochemical factors that play a role in the remodeling of blood vessels, researchers have developed ex vivo perfusion systems to study the response of blood vessels to various hemodynamic environments. While many of these studies have focused on the changes that occur at the cellular and molecular levels, few studies have focused on the tissue-level, or changes in the biomechanics of these vessels. We propose and validate a simple technique to non-invasively monitor the biomechanical properties of ex vivo cultured vessels that requires a slight modification to existing perfusion systems and provides real-time measurements of outer diameter and transmural pressure. Our system provides reproducible estimates of biomechanical properties of cultured vessels and allows for the implementation of a variety of biomechanical testing protocols. Furthermore, our results agree well with those from other studies in which more complicated systems designed solely for short-term experiments were used.