Figure 5.

Contractile response of single HUVECs under the constant shear stress of 20 dyne/cm². (a) Cellular traction force maps of a single HUVEC measured at different time points (left: 0 hr, middle: 3 hr, and right: 6 hr) during the time course of the 6-hr shearing stimulation. The cell periphery was outlined in white. The direction of the shear flow was from left to right, as indicated. Scale bar, 20 µm. (b) Temporal evolutions of the normalized cellular contractility (left) and force directionality (right) of individual HUVECs during the time course of the 6 hr shearing stimulation. The cellular contractility of single HUVECs was normalized to the contractility baseline value measured right before the onset of the flow stimulation. Data represents the means ± SE from 3 indepdent experiments, and cell number n = 20. Statistical analysis was performed by employing the Student's t-test. * indicates p < 0.05.