We find that the media and adventitia of adult human cerebral arteries contain elastic fibers forming a dense, coherent network, similar to that found in muscular arteries of the same size in other organs. The external elastic layer in the adult human is masked for the currently employed staining methods. By treatment with 90% formic acid before fixation, the original staining character of elas...

Triaxial consolidated drained, unconfined compression, and CBR tests have been conducted in order to study the stress-strain, strength, and volume change characteristics of fine sand specimens reinforced by polymeric fibers made from carpet wastes. The variables are aspect ratio (length/width) and weight percentage of the fibers. The results indicate that the peak strength and total volume chan...

The coronary artery of the black Bengal goat was studied by light microscopy. The wall of the coronary artery consisted of the tunica intima, tunica media and tunica externa. The tunica intima consisted of a single layer of flattened endothelium. The tunica media was well-developed and composed of mainly of smooth muscle cells together with some fine elastic fibers. The tunica externa consisted...

The cornea is the main refracting lens in the eye. As part of the outer tunic it has to be resilient, a property conferred by the organisation of the constituent collagen. It also has to be sufficiently elastic to regain its exact shape when deformed, in order not to distort the retinal image. The basis of this elasticity is not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to characterise in...

SUMMARY BACKGROUND Blood clots perform the mechanical task of stemming the flow of blood. OBJECTIVES To advance understanding and realistic modeling of blood clot behavior we determined the mechanical properties of the major structural component of blood clots, fibrin fibers. METHODS We used a combined atomic force microscopy (AFM)/fluorescence microscopy technique to determine key mechanic...

The present study compares the dynamic mechanical properties and the contents of collagen and elastic fibers (oxytalan + elaunin + fully developed elastic fibers) of mice and rat lung strips. Resistance, elastance (E), and hysteresivity (eta) were obtained during sinusoidal oscillations. The relative amounts of blood vessel, bronchial, and alveolar walls, as well as the mean alveolar diameter w...

The authors studied the posterior attachment of the ciliary muscle in seven young (3-10 yr) and five old (26-34 yr) rhesus monkeys by light microscopy and electron microscopy. Posterior attachment of the muscle bundles consisted of elastic tendons, exclusively. The elastic tendons were continuous with the elastic lamina of Bruch's membrane and were also connected by smaller elastic fibers to an...

Resistance artery narrowing and stiffening are key elements in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension, but their origin is not completely understood. In mesenteric resistance arteries (MRA) from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), we have shown that inward remodeling is associated with abnormal elastic fiber organization, leading to smaller fenestrae in the internal elastic lamina. Our c...

Fiber reinforced concretes (FRCs) exhibit property improvement caused by the fibers. By using gamma radiation we have further improved mechanical properties of hydraulic concretes elaborated with Portland cement, water, silica sand, marble and polypropylene (PP) fibers. Compression strength, compression modulus, impact strength and dynamic elastic modulus were determined. Impact fatigue testing...

Statement of Purpose: Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) cause 16,000 deaths in the USA annually. AAAs are typically caused by the release of proteolytic enzymes by recruited inflammatory cells that accelerate degradation of the elastic matrix in inflamed vessel walls. Elastic fibers are critical to vessel elasticity and the maintenance of a healthy vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotype; t...