On the preservation of vessel bifurcations during flow-mediated angiogenic remodelling

During developmental angiogenesis, endothelial cells respond to shear stress by migrating and remodelling the initially hyperbranched plexus, removing certain vessels whilst maintaining others. In this study, we argue that the key regulator of vessel preservation is cell decision behaviour at bifurcations. At flow-convergent bifurcations where migration paths diverge, cells must finely tune migration along both possible paths if the bifurcation is to persist. Experiments have demonstrated that disrupting the cells’ ability to sense shear or the junction forces transmitted between cells impacts the preservation of bifurcations during the remodelling process. However, how these migratory cues integrate during cell decision making remains poorly understood. Therefore, we present the first agent-based model of endothelial cell flow-mediated migration suitable for interrogating the mechanisms behind bifurcation stability. The model simulates flow in a bifurcated vessel network composed of agents representing endothelial cells arranged into a lumen which migrate against flow. Upon approaching a bifurcation where more than one migration path exists, agents refer to a stochastic bifurcation rule which models the decision cells make as a combination of flow-based and collective-based migratory cues. With this rule, cells favour branches with relatively larger shear stress or cell number. We found that cells must integrate both cues nearly equally to maximise bifurcation stability. In simulations with stable bifurcations, we found competitive oscillations between flow and collective cues, and simulations that lost the bifurcation were unable to maintain these oscillations. The competition between these two cues is haemodynamic in origin, and demonstrates that a natural defence against bifurcation loss during remodelling exists: as vessel lumens narrow due to cell efflux, resistance to flow and shear stress increases, attracting new cells to enter and rescue the vessel from regression. Our work provides theoretical insight into the role of junction force transmission has in stabilising vasculature during remodelling and as an emergent mechanism to avoid functional shunting.

Endothelial Barrier Function is co-regulated at Vessel Bifurcations by Fluid Forces and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a blood-borne bioactive lipid mediator of endothelial barrier function. Prior studies have implicated mechanical stimulation due to intravascular laminar shear stress in co-regulating S1P signaling in endothelial cells (ECs). Yet, vascular networks in vivo consist of vessel bifurcations, and this geometry produces hemodynamic forces that are distinct from laminar shear stress. However, the role of these forces at vessel bifurcations in regulating S1P-dependent endothelial barrier function is not known. In this study, we implemented a microfluidic platform that recapitulates the flow dynamics of vessel bifurcations with in situ quantification of the permeability of microvessel analogues. Co-application of S1P with impinging bifurcated fluid flow, which was characterized by approximately zero shear stress and 38 dyn cm-2 stagnation pressure at the vessel bifurcation point, promotes vessel stabilization. Similarly, co-treatment of carrier-free S1P with 3 dyn cm-2 laminar shear stress is also protective of endothelial barrier function. Moreover, it is shown that vessel stabilization due to laminar shear stress, but not bifurcated fluid flow, is dependent on S1P receptor 1 or 2 signaling. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the endothelium-protective function of fluid forces at vessel bifurcations and their involvement in coordinating S1P-dependent regulation of vessel permeability.

Hematocrit dispersion in asymmetrically bifurcating vascular networks

Quantitative modeling of physiological processes in vasculatures requires an accurate representation of network topology, including vessel branching. We propose a new approach for reconstruction of vascular network, which determines how vessel bifurcations distribute red blood cells (RBC) in the microcirculation. Our method follows the foundational premise of Murray's law in postulating the existence of functional optimality of such networks. It accounts for the non-Newtonian behavior of blood by allowing the apparent blood viscosity to vary with discharge hematocrit and vessel radius. The optimality criterion adopted in our approach is the physiological cost of supplying oxygen to the tissue surrounding a blood vessel. Bifurcation asymmetry is expressed in terms of the amount of oxygen consumption associated with the respective tissue volumes being supplied by each daughter vessel. The vascular networks constructed with our approach capture a number of physiological characteristics observed in in vivo studies. These include the nonuniformity of wall shear stress in the microcirculation, the significant increase in pressure gradients in the terminal sections of the network, the nonuniformity of both the hematocrit partitioning at vessel bifurcations and hematocrit across the capillary bed, and the linear relationship between the RBC flux fraction and the blood flow fraction at bifurcations.