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Elastin and Collagen as the Load-Bearing Proteins of the Arterial Wall

Names the material. Elastin supplies recoil at low strain, collagen supplies tensile limit at high strain, and the ratio sets compliance. Required for the shared-material hypothesis to be anything more than a hand-wave.

Questions this Concept answers

Why does the ratio of elastin to collagen set how compliant a vessel wall is?

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Structural Motifs as Programmable Design Parameters for Tuning Vascular Mechanics in

The article explains that arterial pressure-diameter behaviour is nonlinear because an elastin-rich matrix carries the load at low pressure while crimped collagen fibres straighten and become load-be…