Mechanical Characterization and Simulation of Murine Thrombi

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is the formation of a thrombus, or blood clot, in one of the extremities, often in the vein of a leg. Approximately 2 million incidences of DVT occur annually. Roughly 300,000 people die due to the development of a pulmonary embolism (PE), which occurs when the thrombus from a DVT relocates to the pulmonary artery. Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is another life-threatening disease involving thrombi, resulting in 15,000 deaths annually. Together, these diseases impact over 2.5 million people each year. The effects of mechanical properties on thrombi dissociation and aortic rupture are not well characterized, and this lack of knowledge has hampered significant treatment and management of many blood-related diseases, as well as the development of optimal drug therapies. Determining these mechanical properties (i.e., elastic modulus and viscosity) is valuable information, as it can be used as inputs to simulations of thrombi disorders to more accurately determine thrombus dissociation or aortic rupture. The goal of this research is to determine the mechanical properties of murine (rat) thrombi under physiologic conditions via nanoindentation, for use as inputs data to numerical flow simulations.