Age Effects on Arterial Axial Stiffness in Wild Type and Diabetic Mice

The risk of cardiovascular disease is high in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, making it the main cause of death due to these diseases.[1] A significant part of this increased risk is thought to be directly linked to pathological changes in mechanical response resulting in vascular dysfunction. Mechanical response can be altered by changes in the geometry of the vessel, such as fibrotic thickening of the vascular wall, as well as by disease linked mechanisms affecting the material microstructure, such as non-specific cross-linking of collagen, which is most often evidenced by an increase in the stiffness of the tissue.[2]