Fig. 2.

Endothelial cells aligned in the flow direction in high shear stress regions in both the laminar and disturbed flow devices. (a, top) BAEC phase contrast images (10×) after 36 h of flow in the parallel plate flow chamber fitted with either the LFG or DFG. BAECs in static conditions are shown as a control. (a, bottom) Confocal microscopy images (63×) showing actin fibers (rhodamine phalloidin, red) and nuclei (bisbenzimide, blue). (b, left) Representative F-actin fiber orientation histograms for BAEC adapted to various flow regimes. (b, right) Quantification of actin fiber alignment with the parallel plate flow chamber y-axis (295 images among 29 samples, across six independent experiments). (c, top) BAEC confocal microscopy images (63×) after 36 h of flow, with static control, labeled for vinculin (white). (c, bottom) Focal adhesion angle (red: aligned within ±20 deg of the y-axis; white: not aligned within ±20 deg of the y axis) analyzed via matlab image segmentation, superimposed onto processed vinculin (blue) confocal microscopy images. (d, left) Focal adhesion angle distribution representative rose plots for BAEC adapted to various flow regimes. (d, right) Quantification of focal adhesion angle (absolute value) with the parallel plate flow chamber y-axis (76 images among 24 samples, across three independent experiments). *, **, and *** indicate p < 0.01, 0.001, and 0.0001, respectively.