Abstract:
This study characterizes the modulation of the endothelial cell phenotype in response to blood flow induced wall shear stress. An animal specific approach has been used, whereby the same mouse is used in all stages of the investigation: MR angiography and cine phase contrast MRI (pcMRI) were used to image a murine aortic arch in vivo and provide velocity data on boundary conditions respectively. The images were then reconstructed digitally and a distribution of WSS throughout the aortic arch was then determined using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Then the distribution of WSS was used to guide the laser microdissection of aortic ECs from low and high shear stress regions. The gene-expression of ECs was then quantified using polymerase-chain reaction (PCR), and related to the wall shear-stress acting on those cells in vivo.
