Figure 4.

HUVECs exposed to different levels of shear stress. A) HUVECs were sheared under low and high shear stress for 24 h with peptide–FPs circulating in the culture media. B) HUVECs at low shear (1.5 dynes cm⁻²) exhibited the characteristic cobblestone morphology, C) while HUVECs exposed to high shear (15 dynes cm⁻²) showed elongated cell shapes aligned with the direction of flow. Cells were stained for nuclei (DAPI; white) and junctional proteins as an indication of cell monolayer confluency (VE‐cadherin; green), which localized to cell borders. The arrow indicates the direction of laminar flow applied to the cells.