Biomechanics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Biomechanics, including details on mechanics of living organisms, movement, locomotion, prosthetic limbs.

Heart valve function: a biomechanical perspective.

Sacks MS, Yoganathan AP

Engineered Tissue Mechanics and Mechanobiology Laboratory, Department of Bioengineering and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, USA. msacks@pitt.edu

Heart valves (HVs) are cardiac structures whose physiological function is to ensure directed blood flow through the heart over the cardiac cycle. While primarily passive structures that are driven by forces exerted by the surrounding blood and heart, this description does not adequately describe their elegant and complex biomechanical function. Moreover, they must replicate their cyclic function over an entire lifetime, with an estimated total functional demand of least 3x10(9) cycles. As in many physiological systems, one can approach HV biomechanics from a multi-length-scale approach, since mechanical stimuli occur and have biological impact at the organ, tissue and cellular scales. The present review focuses on the functional biomechanics of HVs. Specifically, we refer to the unique aspects of valvular function, and how the mechanical and mechanobiological behaviours of the constituent biological materials (e.g. extracellular matrix proteins and cells) achieve this remarkable feat. While we focus on the work from the authors' respective laboratories, the works of most investigators known to the authors have been included whenever appropriate. We conclude with a summary and underscore important future trends.

Published 16 July 2007 in Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 362(1484): 1369-91.
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