Fig. 6.

Cell–cell junctions were thicker and less continuous in endothelial cells exposed to disturbed flow. (a) Confocal microscopy images (63×) of VE-cadherin (white) at cell–cell adherens junctions. (b) Eight randomly computer-chosen junctions per image. Magenta lines indicate measured signal intensity across cell borders. (c) Example junction width calculation. (d) Maximum junction width quantification (102 images among 15 samples, across 8 independent experiments). # and ** indicate p < 0.05 and 0.001, respectively. (e) VE-cadherin segmented with edge detection and Watershed algorithm. (f) Nearest-neighbor example calculation, with conversion from absolute frequency to relative-to-static frequency. (g) Maximum junction width quantification. 102 images among 15 samples, across eight independent experiments. #, *, **, and *** indicate p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001, and p < 0.0001, respectively.