Biomechanical activation of vascular endothelium as a determinant of its functional phenotype.

ABSTRACT: One of the striking features of vascular endothelium, the single-cell-thick lining of the cardiovascular system, is its phenotypic plasticity. Various pathophysiologic factors, such as cytokines, growth factors, hormones, and metabolic products, can modulate its functional phenotype in health and disease. In addition to these humoral stimuli, endothelial cells respond to their biomechanical environment, although the functional implications of this biomechanical paradigm of activation have not been fully explored. Here we describe a high-throughput genomic analysis of modulation of gene expression observed in cultured human endothelial cells exposed to two well defined biomechanical stimuli-a steady laminar shear stress and a turbulent shear stress of equivalent spatial and temporal average

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Cardena G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC31860 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature