Most blood vessels contain elastin that provides the vessels with the resilience and flexibility necessary to control hemodynamics. Pathophysiological hemodynamic changes affect the remodeling of elastic components, but little is known about their structural properties. The present study was designed to elucidate, in detail, the three-dimensional (3D) architecture of delicate elastic fibers in ...

BACKGROUND The penile erectile tissue has a complex microscopic anatomy with important functions in the mechanism of penile erection. The knowledge of such structures is necessary for understanding the normal physiology of the adult penis. Therefore, it is important to know the changes of these penile structures during fetal development. This study aims to analyze the development of the main co...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2014/251254.].

The understanding of the rheological and mechanical properties of nanoparticle aggregates is important for the application of nanofillers in nanocompoistes. In this work, we report a rheological study on the rheological and mechanical properties of nano-silica agglomerates in the form of gel network mainly constructed by hydrogen bonds. The elastic model for rubber is modified to analyze the el...

Elastin fragmentation is a common characteristic of vascular diseases, such as abdominal aortic aneurysms, peripheral arterial disease, and aortic dissection. Examining growth and remodeling in the presence of dysfunctional elastic fibers provides insight into the adaptive or maladaptive changes that tissues undergo in compensating for structural deficiencies. This study used the maturation of ...

The periumbilical perforating pseudoxanthoma elasticum or perforating calcific elastosis is a rare disorder and its pathogenesis is associated with the alteration of elastic fibers, which may probably result from trauma. We present the case of a 70-year-old woman with long-time blackish maculas and keratotic surface papules on the periareolar and periumbilical regions. The histopathological exa...

A study of the histogenesis of elastic tissue in the embryonic ductus arteriosus of Sus scrofa is in accord with the theory that elastic fibrils are directly differentiated in the outlying portion of the protoplasm of the early connective tissue cell. In the occlusion of the postfetal ductus arteriosus of Sus scrofa there is early a hypertrophy of the internal elastic membrane. Subsequently the...

Histopathological studies were made on 9 necropsy specimens of ductus arteriosus with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and I with rubella syndrome. A control group of 40 normal specimens were also studied. In the 17th week of gestation, ductus arteriosus was composed of few elastic fibers, a thick continuous internal elastic lamina and a wide hypocellular area. In the 8th month of gestation, the...

It is widely accepted that elastotic changes of the skin are primarily an indicator of cumulative sun exposure of the dermis and are a characteristic finding of actinic keratoses. To date, there have been few reports that measure the amount of elastic tissue objectively and quantitatively, especially in actinic keratoses. The computerized image analysis method has proved useful recently in dete...