EFFECTS OF UNIFORM SHEAR STRESS ON THE MIGRATION OF VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL CELL

균일한 전단응력에 의한 혈관내피세포의 운동성 변화

The migration and proliferation of vascular endothelial cells (VEC), which play an important role in vascular remodeling, are known to be regulated by hemodynamic forces in the blood vessels. When shear stresses of 2, 6, 15 dynes/$cm^2$ are applied on mouse micro-VEC in vitro, cells surprisingly migrate against the flow direction at all conditions. While higher flow rate imposes more resistance against the cells, reducing their migration speed, the horizontal component of the velocity parallel to the flow increases with the flow rate, indicating the higher alignment of cells in the direction parallel to the flow at a higher shear stress. In addition, cells exhibit substrate stiffness and calcium dependent migration behavior, which can be explained by polarized remodeling in the mechanosensitive pathway under shear stress.