(A). Unidirectional shear stress (USS) developed on the inflow surface (solid line), where YAP was rarely expressed in the nuclei of VECs (dash arrows). Oscillatory Shear Stress (OSS) developed on the outflow surface (dash line), where VECs with nuclear YAP localized (solid arrows). (B). Compressive Stress (CS) was generated in the tips of valves (solid circle), where VICs with nuclear YAP localized. Tensile Stress (TS) is created in the elongated regions (dash circle), where YAP was absent in VIC nuclei. (C). When applied on a monolayer of VEC, high USS restricted YAP in cytoplasm, low OSS promoted YAP nuclear localization. (D). Cushion explants were cultured under compress stress (CS), tensile stress (TS) and unloaded (U) conditions for 24 hr. Solid outlines describe the explant morphologies at 0 hr, dash outlines describe the explant morphologies at 24 hr. (E). Intensity ratios of nuclear vs. cytoplasmic YAP expressions for experiments in (C, F). Intensity ratios of nuclear vs. cytoplasmic YAP expressions for experiments in (D). Data are presented by mean ± SEM, n=15 explant valves from eight embryos, *p<0.05, two-tailed student t-tests.