Importance of pulsatility in hypertensive carotid artery growth and remodeling

Arteries experience marked variations in blood pressure and flow during the cardiac cycle that can intensify during exercise, in disease, or with aging. Diverse observations increasingly suggest the importance of such pulsatility in arterial homeostasis and adaptations. We used a transverse aortic arch banding model to quantify chronic effects of increased pulsatile pressure and flow on wall morphology, composition, and biaxial mechanical properties in paired mouse arteriesthe highly pulsatile right common carotid artery proximal to the band (RCCA-B) and the nearly normal left common carotid artery distal to the band (LCCA-B). Increased pulsatile mechanical stimuli in RCCA-B increased wall thickness compared with LCCA-B, which correlated more strongly with pulse (r* = 0.632; P < 0.01) than mean (r* = 0.020; P = 0.47) or systolic (r* = 0.466; P < 0.05) pressure. Similarly, inner diameter at mean pressure increased in RCCA-B and correlated slightly more strongly with a normalized index of blood velocity pulsatility (r* = 0.915; P <