Fig. 6.

Dynamic monitoring of the EC-cell junction inclination. A: representation of the inclination angle θ₄ of a range of 12 EC-cell junctions initially inclined in opposite direction of flow (θ₄ < 0), in upright position, or in direction of flow (θ₄ > 0) followed over a time course of 30 min of a 16 dyn/cm² orthograde flow. After 25 min of shear stress, all junctions were considered as flow adapted because they all inclined in the direction of flow. Step retrograde flow immediately after the 30-min time point led to a uniformly rapid reversal of the junctional inclination. XZ sections were acquired every 2 to 5 min over the 45-min period. B: XZ scans illustrating two EC-cell junctions gradually inclining in direction of flow in the first 30 min then suddenly readapting their position to the new flow direction. A representative video of dynamic inclination is provided in the Supplemental Material (Video S2).