Damage to the cardiovascular system, and associated cardiovascular diseases, is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Part of this damage may be caused by oxidative stress in the artery wall, which is associated with mechanical changes of the artery. In this thesis we examine the effect of oxidation caused by hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) on elastin isolated from porcine aortas.

Porcine arterial samples were obtained from a local butcher and cut into dog-bone-shaped specimens. The specimens were treated with a CNBr protocol to isolate the elastin. The elastin specimens were separated into 10 groups of 5 samples each. The samples were treated in 3% H₂O₂ from 5 minutes to 24 hours, with a control group excluded from the H₂O₂ treatment. The Biomechanical Materials Testing System (BiMaTS) was used to monotonically load the specimens in tension to failure. Force and displacement data were recorded. These data were used to calculate stress and stretch ratio results. The maximum stress and stretch at maximum stress was determined for each specimen tested.

One-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD and Bland-Altman plots were used to evaluate the maximum stress and stretch at maximum stress results. It was determined that there was no statistically significant change in the maximum stress or the stretch at that maximum stress of elastin from exposure to H₂O₂.