Sharif Digital Repository

Heart attack is one of the most common causes of death in the world. Coronary artery disease is the most recognized cause of heart attack whose onset and progression have been attributed to low-density lipoprotein (LDL) passing through the wall of the artery. In this paper, hemodynamic variables as well as the concentration of LDL through the coronary porous artery at the Left Anterior Descending coronary artery (LAD), and its first diagonal branch (D1) under the heart motion investigated using computational simulation. The geometry that has been studied in this paper is the first bifurcation of Left Anterior Descending (LAD) that has been placed on a perimeter of hypothetical sphere... 

Targeted drug delivery methods have shown a significant impact on enhancing drug delivery efficiency and reducing drug side effects. While various stimuli have been used to promote the drug delivery process, applying ultrasound (US) waves to control drug particles through the human body, noninvasively, has drawn the scientist's attention. However, microcarriers delivery reaches the aneurysmal artery by US waves that exert volumetric forces on blood, and drug carriers, which can therefore affect blood flow patterns and movement pathways of drug carriers, have not yet been studied. In this study, we developed a 3-D patient-specific model of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) to evaluate the... 

Targeted drug delivery (TDD) to abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) using a controlled and efficient approach has recently been a significant challenge. In this study, by using magnetic microbubbles (MMBs) under a magnetic field, we investigated the MMBs performance in TDD to AAA based on the amount of surface density of MMBs (SDMM) adhered to the AAA lumen. The results showed that among the types of MMBs studied in the presence of the magnetic field, micromarkers are the best type of microbubble with a −50 % increase in SDMM adhered to the critical area of AAA. The results show that applying a magnetic field causes the amount of SDMM adhered to the whole area of AAA to increase −1.54 times... 

This study investigated the effects of different patterns of coronary artery tortuosity (CAT) on the stress concentration of the plaques and the blood flow pattern inside an atherosclerotic artery to predict the risk of plaque rupture and progression. Four different loadings of the coronary artery, including pulsatile blood pressure as well as one-end twist around the artery axis at blood pressures of 74, 100, and 120 mmHg were considered. No study has addressed bent and twist buckling of an atherosclerotic artery considering pulsatile flow (for bent buckling), fluid-solid interaction, and different geometrical parameters of the plaque. The results showed that C-shape tortuosity under... 

Organ-on-a-chip (OOC) systems are engineered nanobiosystems to mimic the physiochemical environment of a specific organ in the body. Among various components of OOC systems, biomimetic membranes have been regarded as one of the most important key components to develop controllable biomimetic bioanalysis systems. Here, we review the preparation and characterization of biomimetic membranes in comparison with the features of the extracellular matrix. After that, we review and discuss the latest applications of engineered biomimetic membranes to fabricate various organs on a chip, such as liver, kidney, intestine, lung, skin, heart, vasculature and blood vessels, brain, and multiorgans with... 

Gas embolotherapy (GE) is a developing medical method which can be utilized either as an autonomous therapeutic method to treat vascularized solid tumors, or it can be combined with other medical procedures—such as high-intensity focused ultrasound—to improve their efficiency. This paper is dedicated to investigating the different parameters which influence bubble lodging inside human vasculature via 2D-modeling of bubble dynamics in arteries’ and arterioles’ bifurcations which are potential sticking positions. Values used in the simulations are in accordance with the non-dimensional physiological numbers. It is found out that inlet pressure plays a decisive role in bubble lodging; the lower... 

The aim of this study was to determine whether specific three-dimensional aortic shape features, extracted via statistical shape analysis (SSA), correlate with the development of thoracic ascending aortic dissection (TAAD) risk and associated aortic hemodynamics. Thirty-one patients followed prospectively with ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA), who either did (12 patients) or did not (19 patients) develop TAAD, were included in the study, with aortic arch geometries extracted from computed tomographic angiography (CTA) imaging. Arch geometries were analyzed with SSA, and unsupervised and supervised (linked to dissection outcome) shape features were extracted with principal component... 

Atherosclerosis as a common cardiovascular disease is a result of both adverse hemodynamics conditions and monocyte deposition within coronary arteries. It is known that the adhesion of monocytes on the arterial wall and their interaction with the vascular surface are one of the main parameters in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. In this work, hemodynamic parameters and monocyte deposition have been investigated in a 3D computational model of the Left Anterior Descending coronary artery (LAD) and its first diagonal branch (D1) under the heart motion. A one-way Lagrangian approach is performed to trace the monocyte particles under different blood flow regimes and heart motion... 

Purpose: Cardiac multimodal image fusion can offer an image with various types of information in a single image. Many coronary stenosis, which are anatomically clear, are not functionally significant. The treatment of such kind of stenosis can cause irreversible effects on the patient. Thus, choosing the best treatment planning depend on anatomical and functional information is very beneficial. Methods: An algorithm for the fusion of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) as an anatomical and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) as a functional modality is presented. CCTA and TTE are temporally registered using manifold learning. A pattern search optimization algorithm, using... 

Irregular hemodynamics affects the progression of various vascular diseases, such atherosclerosis or aneurysms. Despite the extensive hemodynamics studies on animal models, the inter-species differences between humans and animals hamper the translation of such findings. Recent advances in vascular tissue engineering and the suitability ofin vitromodels for interim analysis have increased the use ofin vitrohuman vascular tissue models. Although the effect of flow on endothelial cell (EC) pathophysiology and EC-flow interactions have been vastly studied in two-dimensional systems, they cannot be used to understand the effect of other micro- and macro-environmental parameters associated with... 

Nitric Oxide (NO) provides myocardial oxygen demands of the heart during exercise and cardiac pacing and also prevents cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and platelet adhesion and aggregation. However, the direct in vivo measurement of NO in coronary arteries is still challenging. To address this matter, a mathematical model of dynamic changes of calcium and NO concentration in the coronary artery was developed for the first time. The model is able to simulate the effect of NO release in coronary arteries and its impact on the hemodynamics of the coronary arterial tree and also to investigate the vasodilation effects of arteries during cardiac pacing. For these purposes, flow... 

Efficient strategies to promote microvascularization in vascular tissue engineering, a central priority in regenerative medicine, are still scarce; nano- and micro-sized aggregates and spheres or beads harboring primitive microvascular beds are promising methods in vascular tissue engineering. Capillaries are the smallest type and in numerous blood vessels, which are distributed densely in cardiovascular system. To mimic this microvascular network, specific cell components and proangiogenic factors are required. Herein, advanced biofabrication methods in microvascular engineering, including extrusion-based and droplet-based bioprinting, Kenzan, and biogripper approaches, are deliberated with... 

LDL concentration is believed to be responsible for plaque formation that leads to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We conducted this study to investigate the effects of hematocrits and LDL diameters on LDL concentration on the wall of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The blood flow was considered to be a pulsatile and non-Newtonian flow whose viscosity was a function of hematocrits and strain rate. Lumen, Brownian, and thermophoresis diffusions were analyzed in LDL concentration. The results demonstrated that adding thermophoresis diffusion increases LDL concentration. Moreover, among three types of LDLs, including small LDLs, intermediate LDLs, and large LDLs, small LDLs were the... 

LDL concentration is believed to be responsible for plaque formation that leads to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We conducted this study to investigate the effects of hematocrits and LDL diameters on LDL concentration on the wall of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The blood flow was considered to be a pulsatile and non-Newtonian flow whose viscosity was a function of hematocrits and strain rate. Lumen, Brownian, and thermophoresis diffusions were analyzed in LDL concentration. The results demonstrated that adding thermophoresis diffusion increases LDL concentration. Moreover, among three types of LDLs, including small LDLs, intermediate LDLs, and large LDLs, small LDLs were the... 

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the prevalent reason of mortality all around the world. Targeting CAD, specifically atherosclerosis, with controlled delivery of micro and nanoparticles, as drug carriers, is a very proficient approach. In this work, a patient-specific and realistic model of an atherosclerotic plaque in the left anterior descending (LAD) artery was created by image-processing of CT-scan images and implementing a finite-element mesh. Next, a fluid-solid interaction simulation considering the physiological boundary conditions was conducted. By considering the simulated force fields and particle-particle interactions, the correlation between injected particles at each cardiac... 

Fouling in blood flow is very common and may decrease the blood flow in human body and lead to critical health issues. Upon injury in a blood vessel, the body's defensive system triggers a process to create a blood clot called “Thrombus”, which prevents bleeding. Blood clots are formed by a combination of blood cells, platelets, and fibrins. In this study, we investigate a controlled drug delivery using the magnetic nanoparticles in blood vessels under the influence of magnetic fields. For this purpose the Maxwell and the Navier-Stokes equations for the system are solved. In contrary to the previous studies it is assumed that the blood is a non-Newtonian fluid. The number of particles has... 

Cell survival during the early stages of transplantation and before new blood vessels formation is a major challenge in translational applications of 3D bioprinted tissues. Supplementing oxygen (O2) to transplanted cells via an O2 generating source such as calcium peroxide (CPO) is an attractive approach to ensure cell viability. Calcium peroxide also produces calcium hydroxide that reduces the viscosity of bioinks, which is a limiting factor for bioprinting. Therefore, adapting this solution into 3D bioprinting is of significant importance. In this study, a gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) bioink that is optimized in terms of pH and viscosity is developed. The improved rheological properties... 

Endothelial cell migration is a crucial step in the process of new blood vessel formation - a necessary process to maintain cell viability inside thick tissue constructs. Here, we report a new method for maintaining cell viability and inducing cell migration using a perfused microfluidic platform based on collagen gel and a gradient hydrogel sheet. Due to the helpful role of the extracellular matrix components in cell viability, we developed a hydrogel sheet from decellularized tissue (DT) of the bovine heart and chitosan (CS). The results showed that hydrogel sheets with an optimum weight ratio of CS/DT = 2 possess a porosity of around 75%, a mechanical strength of 23 kPa, and display cell... 

Background and Objective: The present article has simulated to investigate the efficient hemodynamic parameters, the drug persistence, and drug distribution on an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Methods: Blood as a non-Newtonian fluid enters the artery acting as a real pulse waveform; its behavior is dependent on hematocrit and strain rate. In this simulation of computational fluid dynamic, magnetic nanoparticles of iron oxide which were in advance coated with the drug, are injected into the artery during a cardiac cycle. A two-phase model was applied to investigate the distribution of these carriers. Results: The results are presented for different hematocrits and the nanoparticle diameter. It... 

The search for efficient chemotherapy drugs and other anti-cancer treatments would benefit from a deeper understanding of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and its role in tumor progression. Because in vivo experimental methods are unable to isolate or control individual factors of the TME and in vitro models often do not include all the contributing factors, some questions are best addressed with systems biology mathematical models. In this work, we present a new fully-coupled, agent-based, multi-scale mathematical model of tumor growth, angiogenesis and metabolism that includes important aspects of the TME spanning subcellular-, cellular- and tissue-level scales. The mathematical model is...