Oscillatory shear stress and hydrostatic pressure modulate cell-matrix attachment proteins in cultured endothelial cells.

Olivier Thoumine, Robert M. Nerem, Feggy R. Girard
In Vitro Cell Dev Biol - Animal. 1995-01-01; 31(1): 45-54
DOI: 10.1007/bf02631337

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1. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim. 1995 Jan;31(1):45-54.

Oscillatory shear stress and hydrostatic pressure modulate cell-matrix attachment
proteins in cultured endothelial cells.

Thoumine O(1), Nerem RM, Girard PR.

Author information:
(1)Bioengineering Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta 30332-0230,
USA.

Endothelial cells (ECs) may behave as hemodynamic sensors, translating mechanical
information from the blood flow into biochemical signals, which may then be
transmitted to underlying smooth muscle cells. The extracellular matrix (ECM),
which provides adherence and integrity for the endothelium, may serve an
important signaling function in vascular diseases such as atherogenesis, which
has been shown to be promoted by low and oscillating shear stresses. In this
study, confluent bovine aortic ECs (BAECs), were exposed to an oscillatory shear
stress or to a hydrostatic pressure of 40 mmHg for time periods of 12 to 48 h.
Parallel control cultures were maintained in static condition. Although ECs
exposed to hydrostatic pressure or to oscillatory flow had a polygonal morphology
similar to that of control cultures, these cells possessed more numerous central
stress fibers and exhibited a partial loss of peripheral bands of actin, in
comparison to static cells. In EC cultures exposed to oscillatory flow or
hydrostatic pressure, extracellular fibronectin (Fn) fibrils were more numerous
than in static cultures. Concomitantly, a dramatic clustering of alpha 5 beta 1
Fn receptors and of the focal contact-associated proteins vinculin and talin
occurred. Laminin (Ln) and collagen type IV formed a network of thin fibrils in
static cultures, which condensed into thicker fibers when BAECs were exposed to
oscillatory shear stress or hydrostatic pressure. The ECM-associated levels of Fn
and Ln were found to be from 1.5- to 5-fold greater in cultures exposed to
oscillatory shear stress or pressure for 12 and 48 h, than in static cultures.
The changes in the organization and composition of ECM and focal contacts
reported here suggest that ECs exposed to oscillatory shear stress or hydrostatic
pressure may have different functional characteristics from cells in static
culture, even though ECs in either environment exhibit a similar morphology.

DOI: 10.1007/BF02631337
PMID: 7704333 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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