Author(s)

Jia Hu, Er-Yong Zhang, Jiang Wu, Wei-Lin Xu, Huai-Qinq Chen, Ying-Kang Shi, Ying-Qiang Guo

Dept. Thoracic & Cardiovascular surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, West China Medical Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
The State Key Lab of Hydraulics on High Speed Flow, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Dramatic changes of pressure in the local circulation flow field would lead to alterations in biorheological characteristics of Endothelial cells(ECs), and futher resulted in the apoptosis induced by loss of anchorage, a form of cell death known as anoikis. In this study, we set levels of pressure(negative and positive pressure) loaded ECs groups and non-activated cultured ECs ,single shear stress loaded ECs as control group to demonstrate the effects of pressure shift on cell morphogenesis and adhesion. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of pressure shift on ECs proli- feration and apoptosis to elucidate the influences of pressure shift on vitality of ECs. We present these data here to suggest that the negative pressure might be another important factor beyond velocity and shear stress in biomechanical impairment on ECs, then to trigger the apoptosis with the extracellular matrix (ECM) detachment (anoikis). As the negative pressure is thought to play a role in the anoikis process, these results have implications for both the path- ogenesis and therapeutics investigations of stenostic vessel diseases and the future vascular tissue engineering.

Endothelial Cells; Anoikis Cell Adhesion; Pressure; Flow Field

Hu, J. , Zhang, E. , Wu, J. , Xu, W. , Chen, H. , Shi, Y. and Guo, Y. (2010) Pressure shift mediated anoikis of endothelial cells in the flow field in vitro. Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering, 3, 206-212. doi: 10.4236/jbise.2010.32027.