Microvascular Endothelial Cells Migrate Upstream and Align Against the Shear Stress Field Created by Impinging Flow

At present, little is known about how endothelial cells respond to spatial variations in fluid shear stress such as those that occur locally during embryonic development, at heart valve leaflets, and at sites of aneurysm formation. We built an impinging flow device that exposes endothelial cells to gradients of shear stress. Using this device, we investigated the response of microvascular endothelial cells to shear-stress gradients that ranged from 0 to a peak shear stress of 9–210 dyn/cm². We observe that at high confluency, these cells migrate against the direction of fluid flow and concentrate in the region of maximum wall shear stress, whereas low-density microvascular endothelial cells that lack cell-cell contacts migrate in the flow direction. In addition, the cells align parallel to the flow at low wall shear stresses but orient perpendicularly to the flow direction above a critical threshold in local wall shear stress. Our observations suggest that endothelial cells are exquisitely sensitive to both magnitude and spatial gradients in wall shear stress. The impinging flow device provides a, to our knowledge, novel means to study endothelial cell migration and polarization in response to gradients in physical forces such as wall shear stress.     

Parallel-plate Flow Chamber and Continuous Flow Circuit to Evaluate Endothelial Progenitor Cells under Laminar Flow Shear Stress

The overall goal of this method is to describe a technique to subject adherent cells to laminar flow conditions and evaluate their response to well quantifiable fluid shear stresses¹.Our flow chamber design and flow circuit (Fig. 1) contains a transparent viewing region that enables testing of cell adhesion and imaging of cell morphology immediately before flow (Fig. 11A, B), at various time points during flow (Fig. 11C), and after flow (Fig. 11D). These experiments are illustrated with human umbilical cord blood-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and porcine EPCs^2,3.This method is also applicable to other adherent cell types, e.g. smooth muscle cells (SMCs) or fibroblasts.The chamber and all parts of the circuit are easily sterilized with steam autoclaving. In contrast to other chambers, e.g. microfluidic chambers, large numbers of cells (> 1 million depending on cell size) can be recovered after the flow experiment under sterile conditions for cell culture or other experiments, e.g. DNA or RNA extraction, or immunohistochemistry (Fig. 11E), or scanning electron microscopy⁵. The shear stress can be adjusted by varying the flow rate of the perfusate, the fluid viscosity, or the channel height and width. The latter can reduce fluid volume or cell needs while ensuring that one-dimensional flow is maintained. It is not necessary to measure chamber height between experiments, since the chamber height does not depend on the use of gaskets, which greatly increases the ease of multiple experiments. Furthermore, the circuit design easily enables the collection of perfusate samples for analysis and/or quantification of metabolites secreted by cells under fluid shear stress exposure, e.g. nitric oxide (Fig. 12)⁶.     

Traction Forces of Endothelial Cells under Slow Shear Flow

Endothelial cells are constantly exposed to fluid shear stresses that regulate vascular morphogenesis, homeostasis, and disease. The mechanical responses of endothelial cells to relatively high shear flow such as that characteristic of arterial circulation has been extensively studied. Much less is known about the responses of endothelial cells to slow shear flow such as that characteristic of venous circulation, early angiogenesis, atherosclerosis, intracranial aneurysm, or interstitial flow. Here we used a novel, to our knowledge, microfluidic technique to measure traction forces exerted by confluent vascular endothelial cell monolayers under slow shear flow. We found that cells respond to flow with rapid and pronounced increases in traction forces and cell-cell stresses. These responses are reversible in time and do not involve reorientation of the cell body. Traction maps reveal that local cell responses to slow shear flow are highly heterogeneous in magnitude and sign. Our findings unveil a low-flow regime in which endothelial cell mechanics is acutely responsive to shear stress.     

Multivalent Binding of Nanocarrier to Endothelial Cells under Shear Flow

We investigate the effects of particle size, shear flow, and resistance due to the glycocalyx on the multivalent binding of functionalized nanocarriers (NC) to endothelial cells (ECs). We address the much- debated issue of shear-enhanced binding by computing the binding free-energy landscapes of NC binding to the EC surface when the system is subjected to shear, using a model and simulation methodology based on the Metropolis Monte Carlo approach. The binding affinities calculated based on the free-energy profiles are found to be in excellent agreement with experimental measurements for different-sized NCs. The model suggests that increasing the size of NCs significantly increases the multivalency but only moderately enhances the binding affinities due to the entropy loss associated with bound receptors on the EC surface. A significant prediction of our model is that under flow conditions, the binding free energies of NCs are a nonmonotonic function of the shear force. They show a well-defined minimum at a critical shear value, and thus quantitatively mimic the shear-enhanced binding behavior observed in various experiments. More significantly, our results indicate that the interplay between multivalent binding and shear force can reproduce the shear-enhanced binding phenomenon, which suggests that under certain conditions, this phenomenon can also occur in systems that do not show a catch-bond behavior. In addition, the model also suggests that the impact of the glycocalyx thickness on NC binding affinity is exponential, implying a highly nonlinear effect of the glycocalyx on binding.     

大鼠脑微血管内皮细胞培养及其药物转运体Oatp2和P-gp的表达

贴块法培养脑微血管内皮细胞(BMECs),倒置显微镜动态观察细胞生长及形态,Ⅷ因子相关抗原、CD34免疫细胞化学联合鉴定细胞并确定纯度。免疫细胞化学和Western印迹法检测药物转运体有机阴离子转运多肽亚型2(Oatp2)及P-糖蛋白(P-gp)在培养内皮细胞上的表达。结果显示,获得的BMECs呈多角形或铺路石形,单层贴壁生长;培养细胞Ⅷ因子相关抗原免疫细胞化学、CD34免疫荧光染色均为阳性,细胞纯度90%;培养细胞有Oatp2及P-gp表达,且二者均主要表达于BMECs细胞膜。提示贴块法可获得原代培养BMECs,方法简便易行,细胞纯度较高。原代培养的BMECs上有药物转运体Oatp2及P-gp的表达,为血脑屏障上药物转运体的体外研究提供了可能途径。     

Short-Term Shear Stress Induces Rapid Actin Dynamics in Living Endothelial Cells

Hemodynamic shear stress guides a variety of endothelial phenotype characteristics, including cell morphology, cytoskeletal structure, and gene expression profile. The sensing and processing of extracellular fluid forces may be mediated by mechanotransmission through the actin cytoskeleton network to intracellular locations of signal initiation. In this study, we identify rapid actin-mediated morphological changes in living subconfluent and confluent bovine aortic endothelial cells (ECs) in response to onset of unidirectional steady fluid shear stress (15 dyn/cm²). After flow onset, subconfluent cells exhibited dynamic edge activity in lamellipodia and small ruffles in the downstream and side directions for the first 12 min; activity was minimal in the upstream direction. After 12 min, peripheral edge extension subsided. Confluent cell monolayers that were exposed to shear stress exhibited only subtle increases in edge fluctuations after flow onset. Addition of cytochalasin D to disrupt actin polymerization served to suppress the magnitude of flow-mediated actin remodeling in both subconfluent confluent EC monolayers. Interestingly, when subconfluent ECs were exposed to two sequential flow step increases (1 dyn/cm² followed by 15 dyn/cm² 12 min later), actin-mediated edge activity was not additionally increased after the second flow step. Thus, repeated flow increases served to desensitize mechanosensitive structural dynamics in the actin cytoskeleton.     

成梯度增加的流体流动剪切力促进明胶基底上人脐静脉内皮细胞粘附

采用脉动平板流动腔 (flowchamber)系统 ,研究了的单水平流动剪应力加载 ,和从 5或 7.5dyne/cm² 开始的成梯度增加至 1 0或 1 5dyne cm² 的流动剪应力加载 ,在 5h、1 0h、2 4h对生长在明胶基底上的人脐静脉内皮细胞 (HUVEC)粘附性的影响 ,探讨了梯度增加的流动剪切力加载对细胞粘附能力的促进作用。实验结果表明 :与 7.5dyne cm² 的单一水平的加载相比 ,成梯度增加的流动剪切力可明显提高HUVEC在明胶基底上的粘附 ,增加HUVEC对流动剪应力的耐受程度 ,有利于引起HUVEC转变成与在体相同的形态和排列。     

一种实时检测剪切力引起培养的大鼠动脉内皮细胞内一氧化氮含量的新方法

建立一个稳定和实时检测在不同剪切力作用下内皮细胞内一氧化氮含量的方法。利用流动小室建立内皮细胞剪切模型 ,在内皮细胞用DAF FM染色后 ,用Zeiss荧光共聚焦显微镜和ICCD摄象头检测细胞内的荧光强度。DAF FM的荧光强度可以反映一氧化氮的胞内含量。剪切力引起内皮细胞合成一氧化氮增加 ,并且这种作用是随着剪切力的增加而增加。剪切力的作用被一氧化氮合酶抑制剂L NAME全部抑制 ,被无Ca2 缓冲液部分抑制。这个方法可以实时反映一氧化氮含量的变化 ,可以用来研究剪切力引起一氧化氮变化的机制以及用来评价内皮细胞对剪切力的反应特性     

Tetramethylpyrazine Protects Against Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation-Induced Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells Injury via Rho/Rho-kinase Signaling Pathway

Tetramethylpyrazine (TMP, also known as Ligustrazine), which is isolated from Chinese Herb Medicine Ligustium wollichii Franchat (Chuan Xiong), has been widely used in China for the treatment of ischemic stroke by Chinese herbalists. Brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) are the integral parts of the blood–brain barrier (BBB), protecting BMECs against oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) which is important for the treatment of ischemic stroke. Here, we investigated the protective mechanisms of TMP, focusing on OGD-injured BMECs and the Rho/Rho-kinase (Rho-associated kinases, ROCK) signaling pathway. The model of OGD-injured BMECs was established in this study. BMECs were identified by von Willebrand factor III staining and exposed to fasudil, or TMP at different concentrations (14.3, 28.6, 57.3 µM) for 2 h before 24 h of OGD injury. The effect of each treatment was examined by cell viability assays, measurement of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), and transendothelial electric resistance and western blot analysis (caspase-3, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), RhoA, Rac1). Our results show that TMP significantly attenuated apoptosis and the permeability of BMECs induced by OGD. In addition, TMP could notably down-regulate the characteristic proteins in Rho/ROCK signaling pathway such as RhoA and Rac1, which triggered abnormal changes of eNOS and ROS, respectively. Altogether, our results show that TMP has a strong protective effect against OGD-induced BMECs injury and suggest that the mechanism might be related to the inhibition of the Rho/ROCK signaling pathway.     

Fluid Shear Stress on Endothelial Cells Modulates Mechanical Tension across VE-Cadherin and PECAM-1

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Phenotypic Alterations in Senescent Large-Vessel and Microvascular Endothelial Cells

Endothelial cell senescence likely plays a key role in age-associated vascular diseases. A close relationship between in vitro and in vivo senescence of endothelial cells has been established. Therefore, elucidating the structural and functional changes occurring during long-term cultures of endothelial cells would contribute to clarifying the pathogenesis of vascular disorders in the elderly. We investigated the effects of replicative senescence on the architecture of bovine aortic vs microvascular endothelial cells. A marked increase in cell area was observed in both cell types, whereas dramatic morphological alterations were detected in microvascular endothelial cells only. The latter also showed age-associated reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. Finally, both aortic and microvascular endothelial cells lost their migratory response to basic fibroblast growth factor with age. Our results highlight dramatic structural and functional alterations in senescent endothelial cells. Such rearrangements might account for in vivo endothelial cell alterations involved in age-associated vascular dysfunction.     

Theory to Predict Shear Stress on Cells in Turbulent Blood Flow

Shear stress on blood cells and platelets transported in a turbulent flow dictates the fate and biological activity of these cells. We present a theoretical link between energy dissipation in turbulent flows to the shear stress that cells experience and show that for the case of physiological turbulent blood flow: (a) the Newtonian assumption is valid, (b) turbulent eddies are universal for the most complex of blood flow problems, and (c) shear stress distribution on turbulent blood flows is possibly universal. Further we resolve a long standing inconsistency in hemolysis between laminar and turbulent flow using the theoretical framework. This work demonstrates that energy dissipation as opposed to bulk shear stress in laminar or turbulent blood flow dictates local mechanical environment of blood cells and platelets universally.     

Long-Term Infection and Transformation of Dermal Microvascular Endothelial Cells by Human Herpesvirus 8

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) infects Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) spindle cells in situ, as well as the lesional endothelial cells considered to be spindle cell precursors. The HHV8 genome contains several oncogenes, suggesting that infection of endothelial and spindle cells could induce cellular transformation and tumorigenesis and promote the formation of KS lesions. To investigate the potential of HHV8 infection of endothelial cells to contribute to the development of KS, we have developed an in vitro model utilizing dermal microvascular endothelial cells that support significant HHV8 infection. In contrast to existing in vitro systems used to study HHV8 pathogenesis, the majority of dermal endothelial cells are infected with HHV8 and the viral genome is maintained indefinitely. Infection is predominantly latent, with a small percentage of cells supporting lytic replication, and latency is responsive to lytic induction stimuli. Infected endothelial cells develop a spindle shape resembling that of KS lesional cells and show characteristics of a transformed phenotype, including loss of contact inhibition and acquisition of anchorage-independent growth. These results describe a relevant model system in which to study virus-host interactions in vitro and demonstrate the ability of HHV8 to induce phenotypic changes in infected endothelial cells that resemble characteristics of KS spindle cells in vivo. Thus, our results are consistent with a direct role for HHV8 in the pathogenesis of KS.     

大鼠脑微血管内皮细胞的分离与原代培养

为了建立大鼠脑微血管内皮细胞体外培养模型,探索纯度较高的大鼠脑微血管内皮细胞分离和原代培养的方法并进行形态学观察。采用2～3周龄的SD大鼠,解剖得到大脑皮质,两次酶消化及牛血清白蛋白或葡聚糖和Percoll梯度离心获得较纯的脑微血管段后,接种于涂布基质的培养皿进行原代培养;培养的细胞采用相差显微镜形态学观察、透射电镜观察及Ⅷ因子相关抗原免疫组化检测鉴定。结果发现,培养12h即可见细胞从贴壁的脑微血管段周围长出,细胞呈短梭形,区域性单层生长,5～7天内皮细胞融合,内皮细胞纯度达90％以上;内皮细胞的贴壁和生长有赖于所涂布的基质,纤连蛋白／Ⅳ型胶原优于鼠尾胶和明胶;Ⅷ因子相关抗原免疫组化检测内皮细胞表达阳性,透射电镜观察可见相邻内皮细胞间存在紧密连接结构。提示该方法能成功进行纯度较高的大鼠脑微血管内皮细胞原代培养,可用于脑微血管内皮的生理、生化及药理学研究,亦可用于构建大鼠血脑屏障模型。     

剪应力和周向应变联合作用下血管内皮细胞内自由Ca^2＋响应

机械力调节血管内皮细胞功能。Ca2 在机械力信号转导中扮演了重要的角色。本文研究剪应力和周向应变联合作用下血管内皮细胞内自由Ca2 浓度的变化规律,结果表明,在生理周向应变条件(小于15%)下,同时暴露于剪应力和周向应变的细胞内自由Ca2 浓度变化更依赖于剪应力大小而非周向应变的大小,Ca2 浓度升高主要是胞外Ca2 内流引起的。