Аннотация:Reduced blood flow, as occurring in ischemia or resulting from exposure tomicrogravity such as encountered in space flights, induces a decrease in thelevel of shear stress sensed by the endothelial cells forming the inner part ofblood vessels. In the present study, we use a microvasculature-on-a-chip devicein order to investigate in vitro the effect of such a reduction in shear stress onshear-adapted endothelial cells. We find that, within one hour of expositionto reduced wall shear stress, human umbilical vein endothelial cells undergo areorganization of their actin skeleton, with a decrease in the number of stressfibers and actin being recruited into the cells’ peripheral band, indicating afairly fast change in cells’ phenotype due to altered flow.
