Figure 7.

Sham-operated aortas demonstrate normal wall shear stress and laminar flow, normal tensile stress and circumferential wall stress. The endothelial cells display typical cobblestone morphology, with well-defined margin and the media remained intact. The aorta remodelling observed in the hypertensive prestenotic segment with increased circumferential wall tension associated with normal tensile stress, laminar flow/normal wall shear stress was characterized by enlarged heterogeneous endothelial cells, elongated in the direction of the blood flow, diffusely distributed conspicuous neointimal plaques. The endothelial cells are ill-defined and the media is thickened. Our findings suggest that increased circumferential wall tension due to hypertension plays a pivotal role in the remodelling of the prestenotic segment through biomechanical effects on oxidative stress and increased TGF-β expression.