Shear Stress Initiates Endothelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Endocardial Endothelial Cells.

ABSTRACT: Discrete subaortic stenosis (DSS) is a congenital heart disease in which a fibrotic membrane forms below the aortic valve; the underlying cellular mechanisms are currently unknown. Since an elevated pressure gradient in the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) is a distinguishing feature of DSS, it is hypothesized that the membrane formation is caused by elevated wall shear stress applied to the endocardial endothelial cells (EECs) that line the LVOT, triggering fibrosis. To correlate shear stress to an EEC fibrotic phenotype, we applied fluid shear stress to EECs at physiological and pathological shear rates using a cone-and-plate device, designed to recapitulate physiological wall shear stress in a controlled in vitro environment. Controlled shear stress regimes were applied to EECs to

SUBMITTER: Brown KN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12866971 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature