Figure 5.

Effect of the mechanical cyclic stretch on the morphology of the vessel wall lining cells

(A) Exemplary z-projected fluorescence microscope close-up images of the vessel wall. Yellow arrows indicate Pecam-1 expression (plasma membrane), whereas pink arrows indicate the shape and orientation of the nuclei, and white arrows F-Actin stained fibers (blue: Hoechst, green: Pecam-1, red: F-Actin, Day: 5).

(B) Comparison of nuclei morphology, namely area and circularity between static and stretch condition (whiskers: 10–90 percentile, unpaired t-test, p value <0.0001: ∗∗∗∗; p value <0.001: ∗∗∗; p value <0.01: ∗∗; p value <0.05: ∗, p value >0.05: ns, N = 3, total n = 12/condition).

(C) Positional comparison of nuclei morphology under stretch condition (whiskers: 10–90 percentile, ordinary one-way ANOVA, p value <0.0001: ∗∗∗∗; p value <0.001: ∗∗∗; p value <0.01: ∗∗; p value <0.05: ∗, p value >0.05: ns, N = 3, total n = 12) (D) Comparison of nuclei orientation, where 0° or 180° is the direction of the main vessel, and 90° would be perpendicular to it. Plotted is the main direction of each analyzed segment with the relative amount on the radial axis. Only segments passing a Gaussian curve fit of the histogram with a goodness of ≥0.6 were taken (N = 3, total n = 12/condition).