The Effect of Oxidation on the Mechanical Response of Isolated Elastin and Aorta

Abstract

Oxidation of aorta by hydroxyl radicals produces structural changes in arterial proteins like elastin and collagen. This in turn results in change in the mechanical response of aorta. In this paper, a thermodynamically consistent constitutive model is developed within the framework of mixture theory, to describe the changes in aorta and isolated elastin with oxidation. The model is then studied under uniaxial extension using experimental data from literature.