Document Type

Article

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Publication Details

Journal of Material Sciences: Materials Medicine (2007) 18:1973–1981

Abstract

In vivo, endothelial cells are constantly exposed to pulsatile shear and tensile stresses. The main aim of this study was to design and build a physiological simulator, which reproduced homogenous strain profiles of the tensile strain experienced in vivo, and to investigate the effect of this cyclic tensile strain on the cell morphology, cell orientation and protein expression of endothelial cells. The biological response of human umbilical vein endothelial cells to a uniaxial cyclic stretch, in this newly developed simulator, was examined experimentally using immunohistostaining and confocal imaging and it was

found that the cells elongated and oriented at 58.9± 4.5. This value was compared to a mathematical model where it was revealed that endothelial cells would orient at an angle of 60. This model also revealed that endothelial cells have an axial strain threshold value of 1.8% when exposed to a 10% cyclic strain at 1 Hz for 3 h. Cells cultured under conditions of cyclic strain showed increased ICAM-1 immunostaining when compared to static cells whereas, a marked decrease in the levels of VCAM-1 receptor staining was also observed. Haemodynamic stresses can modulate the endothelial cell adhesion response in vivo thus, taken together; this data validates the bioreactor as replicating the physiological environment.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-007-3125-3

Funder

Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), administered by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Science Foundation Ireland and the Embark Initiative, operated by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET)

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