PMID- 35963022 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20220908 LR - 20240922 IS - 1878-0180 (Electronic) IS - 1751-6161 (Print) IS - 1878-0180 (Linking) VI - 134 DP - 2022 Oct TI - A discrete fiber network finite element model of arterial elastin network considering inter-fiber crosslinking property and density. PG - 105396 LID - S1751-6161(22)00303-4 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2022.105396 [doi] AB - Inter-fiber crosslinks within the extracellular matrix (ECM) play important roles in determining the mechanical properties of the fibrous network. Discrete fiber network (DFN) models have been used to study fibrous biological material, however the contribution of inter-fiber crosslinks to the mechanics of the ECM network is not well understood. In this study, a DFN model of arterial elastin network was developed based on measured structural features to study the contribution of inter-fiber crosslinking properties and density to the mechanics and fiber kinematics of the network. The DFN was generated by randomly placing line segments into a given domain following a fiber orientation distribution function obtained from multiphoton microscopy until a desired fiber areal fraction was reached. Intersections between the line segments were treated as crosslinks. The generated DFN model was then incorporated into an ABAQUS finite element model to simulate the network under equi- and nonequi-biaxial deformation. The inter-fiber crosslinks were modeled using connector elements with either zero (pin joint) or infinite (weld joint) rotational stiffness. Furthermore, inter-fiber crosslinking density was systematically reduced and its effect on both network- and fiber-level mechanics was studied. The DFN model showed good fitting and predicting capabilities of the stress-strain behavior of the elastin network. While the pin and weld joints do not seem to have noticeable effect on the network stress-strain behavior, the crosslinking properties can affect the local fiber mechanics and kinematics. Overall, our study suggests that inter-fiber crosslinking properties are important to the multiscale mechanics and fiber kinematics of the ECM network. CI - Copyright (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Yu, Xunjie AU - Yu X AD - Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. FAU - Zhang, Yanhang AU - Zhang Y AD - Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA; Division of Materials Science & Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. Electronic address: yanhang@bu.edu. LA - eng GR - R01 HL098028/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural DEP - 20220731 PL - Netherlands TA - J Mech Behav Biomed Mater JT - Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials JID - 101322406 RN - 9007-34-5 (Collagen) RN - 9007-58-3 (Elastin) SB - IM MH - Biomechanical Phenomena MH - *Collagen/chemistry MH - *Elastin/chemistry MH - Extracellular Matrix/chemistry MH - Finite Element Analysis MH - Stress, Mechanical PMC - PMC10368519 MID - NIHMS1916409 OTO - NOTNLM OT - Crosslink OT - Discrete fiber network OT - Elastin network OT - Finite element OT - Rotational stiffness COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. EDAT- 2022/08/14 06:00 MHDA- 2022/09/09 06:00 PMCR- 2023/07/25 CRDT- 2022/08/13 18:13 PHST- 2022/03/30 00:00 [received] PHST- 2022/07/13 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2022/07/19 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2022/08/14 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2022/09/09 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2022/08/13 18:13 [entrez] PHST- 2023/07/25 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - S1751-6161(22)00303-4 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2022.105396 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2022 Oct;134:105396. doi: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2022.105396. Epub 2022 Jul 31.