Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2013, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (32): 3055-3062.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2013.32.009

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Viscoelastic evaluation of fetal umbilical vein for reconstruction of middle cerebral artery

Dongyuan Li1, Donghui Xu1, Peng Li2, Jun Wei1, Kun Yang3, Conghai Zhao1   

  1. 1 Department of Neurosurgery, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun 130031, Jilin Province, China
    2 Department of Engineering Mechanics, Nanling Branch, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, Jilin Province, China
    3 Basic Department, Air Force Aviation University, Changchun 130022, Jilin Province, China
  • Received:2013-04-22 Revised:2013-07-23 Online:2013-11-15 Published:2013-11-15
  • Contact: Conghai Zhao, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun 130031, Jilin Province, China, shm753@sina.com.
  • About author:Dongyuan Li, Ph.D., Associate professor.

PDF

1417

Abstract:

The transplantation of artificial blood vessels with < 6 mm inner diameter as substitutes for human arterioles or veins has not achieved satisfactory results. Umbilical vein has been substituted for ar-tery in vascular transplantation, but it remains unclear whether the stress relaxation and creep be-tween these vessels are consistent. In this study, we used the fetal umbilical vein and middle cere-bral artery from adult male cadavers to make specimens 15 mm in length, 0.196–0.268 mm in tu-nica media thickness, and 2.82–2.96 mm in outer diameter. The results demonstrated that the stress decrease at 7 200 seconds was similar between the middle cerebral artery and fetal umbilical vein specimens, regardless of initial stress of 18.7 kPa or 22.5 kPa. However, the strain increase at 7 200 seconds of fetal umbilical veins was larger than that of middle cerebral arteries. Moreover, the stress relaxation experiment showed that the stress decrease at 7 200 seconds of the fetal umbilical vein and middle cerebral artery specimens under 22.5 kPa initial stress was less than the decrease in these specimens under 18.7 kPa initial stress. These results indicate that the fetal umbilical vein has appropriate stress relaxation and creep properties for transplantation. These properties are advantageous for vascular reconstruction, indicating that the fetal umbilical vein can be transplanted to repair middle cerebral artery injury.