Figure 6.

Comparison between static control and flow groups. In static culture group (top), no flow stimulus was applied to observe that ECs proliferated gradually to achieve a monolayer in 48 h of culture with weak adherens junction development. Meanwhile in EC culture group with extremely slow flow (bottom), a confluent monolayer formed with well-developed adherens junction. It seems even extremely slow flow can trigger EC responses including NO secretion to enhance proliferation and make the cells progress to a stable state with strong adherens junction development.