COMPUTATIONAL FLUID MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WALL SHEAR STRESS ON ENDOTHELIAL CELLS

Abstract

The shear stress over cultured endothelial cells was conventionally estimated assuming a flat cell surface by most of previous authors. This assumption is not true, if the cells are observed closely. Therefore we evaluated the surface shear stress distribution using computational fluid mechanics in the present study. Results of this study showed that, the peak value of the shear stress on the top of the cell over the underlying nucleus (nuclear bulge) sometimes became several times larger than that of the flat part of the cell surface. Also noted was that the gradient of the surface shear stress was high along the side of the nuclear bulge. These findings may suggest the existence of a preferred location of a shear stress sensing apparatus on the cell surface.