Tribological Characteristics of Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Implication of Disease State on Friction

Abstract The aim of this study was to establish a simple tribological model to assess the frictional properties of non-diabetic (ND) and Type 2 diabetic (T2DM) patients with the view to better understand the interfacial processes off icing in-vivo during angioplasty. Human primary smooth muscle cell (SMC) monolayers from non-diabetic (ND) and Type 2 diabetic (T2DM) patients were isolated and cultured. The coefficient of friction of ND and T2DM SMC monolayers was measured using a micro-tribometer set-up at normal loads (Fn) of 0.4 and 0.8 mN. The coefficient of friction was dependent on load and disease state. The cycle average coefficient of friction of patient grouped SMCs was μ = 0.107 ± 0.03 and 0.22 ± 0.01 for ND and T2DM respectively. Within the ND group, the coefficient of friction was seen to be patient specific, with the coefficient of friction varying significantly from μ = 0.03 ± 0.03 to 0.185 ± 0.07. Results show that disease state will affect the frictional properties of SMCs. In turn the disease state may also influence the SMCs susceptibly to tribologically induced inflammation.