Homeostatic collagen remodeling: enzymatic strain stabilization and large strain softening in pressurized thick-walled cylindrical vessels

Properties of soft tissue change with time due to ongoing processes of growth and remodeling, which are governed by biochemical factors and physical mediation. The enzymatic degradation of collagen is regulated by mechanical stretch such that a modest amount of fiber stretch decreases the rate of collagen turnover. At larger stretches, this process is reversed, and the fiber degradation rate is increased. The present work studies such fiber-strain dependent remodeling processes in a pressurized cylinder for a fiber remodeling process in homeostasis. The natural configuration of the constituents may differ, for example, when fibers are synthesized so as to have an initial pre-stretch. This difference in the natural configuration of the constituents affects how a homeostatic fiber remodeling process responds to external disruption.