Influence of External Forces on Vessel Walls

All blood vessels experience internal tension under normal diastolic blood pressure. In addition to this static tension, chronic changes in wall stress that occur as a result of increases in blood pressure have been reported to lead to vascular remodeling, increased vascular wall diameter and thickness, in an attempt to restore normal values of vessel wall shear stress. Increased 

The increased vessel wall diameter and wall thickness seen in blood vessels from hypertensive individuals suggests that increased external tensile loading up-regulates tissue deposition. This observation suggests that mechanochemical transduction processes may play an important role in development of atherosclerosis as a result of elevated smooth muscle wall stresses. 

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