Endothelial cells are subjected to biochemical and mechanical stimuli, which regulate their angiogenic potential. We determined the synergistic effects of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and fluid wall shear stress (WSS) on a previously established model of human umbilical vein endothelial cell invasion into three-dimensional collagen matrices. Collagen matrices were incorporated into a parallel-...

Arterial hemodynamic shear stress and blood vessel stiffening both significantly influence the arterial endothelial cell (EC) phenotype and atherosclerosis progression, and both have been shown to signal through cell-matrix adhesions. However, the cooperative effects of fluid shear stress and matrix stiffness on ECs remain unknown. To investigate these cooperative effects, we cultured bovine ao...

Fluid shear stress modulates vascular function and structure by stimulating mechanosensitive endothelial cell signal events. Cell adhesion, mediated by integrin-matrix interactions, also regulates intracellular signaling by mechanosensitive events. To gain insight into the role of integrin-matrix interactions, we compared tyrosine phosphorylation and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/...

The p38/mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase-activated protein kinase 2 (MAPKAP kinase 2)/heat shock protein (HSP)25/27 pathway is thought to play a critical role in actin dynamics. In the present study, we examined whether p38 was involved in the morphological changes seen in endothelial cells (EC) exposed to shear stress. Cultured bovine aortic EC were subjected to 14 dyn/cm(2) laminar stea...

AIMS CYP1A1 and CYP1B1, members of the cytochrome P450 protein family, are regulated by fluid shear stress. This study describes the effects of duration, magnitude and pattern of shear stress on CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 expressions in human endothelial cells, towards the goal of understanding the role(s) of these genes in pro-atherogenic or anti-atherogenic endothelial cell functions. METHODS AND RE...

This study addressed the influence of the rate of shear stress application on aortic smooth muscle cell (SMC) contraction and the role of specific glycosaminoglycans in this mechanotransduction. Rat aortic SMCs were exposed to either a step increase in shear stress (0 to 25 dyn/cm(2)) or a ramp increase in shear stress (0 to 25 dyn/cm(2) over 5 min) in a parallel plate flow chamber, and cell co...

The experimental study introduces an unload-induced direct-shear model to investigate the frictional slip of a layer of simulated granular gouges induced by the combination of a decreasing normal stress and a constant shear stress. A frictional equilibrium state of the gouge layer is initially established under fixed normal and shear stresses. The normal stress is proposed to decrease at a cons...

[1] Conditions for shear and compaction localization are examined for stress states on an elliptic yield cap in the space of Mises equivalent shear stress t and mean normal compressive stress s. Localization is predicted to occur when the slope of the hydrostatic stress versus inelastic volume strain curve falls to a critical value kcrit. When applied to the standard triaxial test, the analysis...

By combining substrate-free structures with anodic bonding technology, we present a simple and efficient micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) thermal shear stress sensor. Significantly, the resulting depth of the vacuum cavity of the sensor is determined by the thickness of silicon substrate at which Si is removed by anisotropic wet etching process. Compared with the sensor based on a sacrifi...

To investigate the molecular mechanisms of laminar shear stress on the inhibition of apoptosis in endothelial cells, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were starved in medium containing 2% fetal bovine serum (FBS) and treated with 15 dyne/cm2 shear stress. We confirmed that 15 dyne/cm2 shear stress inhibited the expression of Omi/HtrA2 at the mRNA and protein levels in cultured HUV...