A Flow System for the Study of Shear Forces Upon Cultured Endothelial Cells

1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 338-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Koslow ◽  
R. R. Stromberg ◽  
L. I. Friedman ◽  
R. J. Lutz ◽  
S. L. Hilbert ◽  
...  

A parallel plate chamber in a flow system has been designed to study the effects of fluid shear stresses on cells. The system was applied to the study of cultured endothelial cells grown on cover slips which were accommodated in recessed wells in the base plate. Dye injection studies in the chamber indicated laminar flow over the cells. Shear rates measured over the cover slips by an electrochemical technique were found to be linear with flow rate. Laser doppler anemometry showed parabolic profiles between the plates. Endothelial cells subjected to flow showed a correlation between the time required for orientation and the magnitude of the shear stress.

Author(s):  
Hojin Kang ◽  
Kayla J. Bayless ◽  
Roland Kaunas

We have previously developed a cell culture model to study the effects of angiogenic factors, such as sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), on the invasion of endothelial cells into the underlying extracellular matrix. In addition to biochemical stimuli, vascular endothelial cells are subjected to fluid shear stress due to blood flow. The present study is aimed at determining the effects of fluid shear stress on endothelial cell invasion into collagen gels. A device was constructed to apply well-defined fluid shear stresses to confluent human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) seeded on collagen gels. Fluid shear stress induced significant increases in cell invasion with a maximal induction at ∼5 dyn/cm2. These results provide evidence that fluid shear stress is a significant stimulus for endothelial cell invasion and may play a role in regulating angiogenesis.


1985 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Levesque ◽  
R. M. Nerem

Vascular endothelial cells appear to be aligned with the flow in the immediate vicinity of the arterial wall and have a shape which is more ellipsoidal in regions of high shear and more polygonal in regions of low shear stress. In order to study quantitatively the nature of this response, bovine aortic endothelial cells grown on Thermanox plastic coverslips were exposed to shear stress levels of 10, 30, and 85 dynes/cm2 for periods up to 24 hr using a parallel plate flow chamber. A computer-based analysis system was used to quantify the degree of cell elongation with respect to the change in cell angle of orientation and with time. The results show that (i) endothelial cells orient with the flow direction under the influence of shear stress, (ii) the time required for cell alignment with flow direction is somewhat longer than that required for cell elongation, (iii) there is a strong correlation between the degree of alignment and endothelial cell shape, and (iv) endothelial cells become more elongated when exposed to higher shear stresses.


Blood ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 729-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Clozel ◽  
H Kuhn ◽  
HR Baumgartner

Abstract It has been reported that cultured endothelial cells become procoagulant when exposed to endotoxin. This prompted us to investigate whether human endothelial cells treated with endotoxin could promote the generation of fibrin when exposed to human flowing blood. For this purpose we used a parallel-plate perfusion chamber in which confluent cultured endothelial cells from human umbilical veins were exposed for five minutes to directly drawn human nonanticoagulated blood, at wall shear rates of 100, 650, and 2600 sec-1. Fibrin deposition was assessed by morphometry. No fibrin deposition occurred on normal endothelial cells. In contrast, cells incubated with endotoxin for 4 or 18 hours induced fibrin deposition, but only at a shear rate of 100 sec-1. Since some extracellular matrix was exposed between the cells, we investigated whether extracellular matrix played a role in fibrin formation. When the endothelial cells incubated or not with endotoxin were removed by EDTA, the exposed extracellular matrix perfused with blood at 100 sec-1 supported platelet and fibrin deposition in both cases. This suggests that the effect of endotoxin on endothelial cells was not due to extracellular matrix alteration but only to cellular activation or secretion of procoagulant substances. We conclude that human endothelial cells treated with endotoxin can trigger fibrin formation and deposition at their surface when exposed to flowing blood at low shear rate.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Ohashi ◽  
H. Sugawara ◽  
Y. Ishii ◽  
M. Sato

Abstract Under fluid shear stress, applied both in vivo and in vitro, vascular endothelial cells show morphological changes. After applying shear stress, cultured endothelial cells showed elongation and orientation to the flow direction (Kataoka et al., 1998). Moreover, statistical image analysis showed that intercellular F-actin distributions were confirmed to change depending on the shear stress and the flow direction. Thus, the endothelial cell morphology relates closely with the cytoskeletal structures. Intercellular stress distributions in the cells may be also accompanied by the reorganization of cytoskeletal structures. The use of both atomic force microscopy measurements (AFM) of endothelial cell surface topography and computational fluid dynamics of shear stress distributions acting on the cell surface, it has revealed that the surface geometry defined the detailed distribution of shear stress (Davies et al., 1995).


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