X-RAY ANALYSIS OF ARTERIAL WALLS

ARTERY WALLS ARE SEMI-CRYSTALLINE AND ANEURYSM GROWTH REPRESENTS A PHASE TRANSITION

Ogan Gurel
Prof. Robert A. Solomon

The initiation and development of cerebral arterial aneurysms is

a biophysical process involving the interaction between hemodynamic
stresses and localized defects in the artery wall. Recent efforts at
understanding the pathophysiology of aneurysmal disease, have
attempted to contrast normal and aneurysmal arteries on a molecular
biological basis. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to obtain
conclusive results using these conventional biochemical methods.
The present work contrasts normal versus aneurysmal arteries on
the basis of structure — namely by detecting subtle yet distinct x-ray
diffraction patterns that reflect differing degrees of order and disorder.
Although the arterial media represents an amorphous solid over the
long-range, there is significant short-range order that should, in
principle, be detectable with the use of high-flux synchrotron x-ray
radiation. The present study represents a diffraction study of normal
superficial temporal arteries which are ordinarily sacrificed during the
course of temporal craniotomy. The samples underwent x-ray
diffraction analysis (under freezing conditions) at the high-flux
synchrotron beamline X4A at the National Synchrotron Light Source in
collaboration with Prof. Wayne A. Hendrickson.
Several features of the diffraction pattern from a normal artery
are evident. First are the prominent water rings which represent ice
formation within or around the sample. Second, subtle but regular
diffraction peaks are observed parallel to the artery axis at
approximately 6.75, 5.45 and 5.0 Å spacings. A helical pattern at 4.1
to 3.25 Å is also present. These patterns imply a semicrystalline
organization to the normal arterial wall. A similar diffraction
experiment with a sample obtained from the aneurysmal defect itself
— more specifically, the aneurysm dome reveals the presence of the
water rings but no discernible diffraction pattern or powder pattern.
This tissue therefore is indeed amorphous.
The implications of this study are several fold: First, it presents
evidence of the striking semi-crystallinity of the vascular wall. Second,
the wall defect at the aneurysm site demonstrates, in contrast, an
amorphous structure. Third, by implication the development of
cerebral aneurysms represents a phase transition. Several
important pathophysiological and clinical implications follow from
these results.