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Clogging of pipes leading to the heart is the planet's number onekiller. Surgeons can act as medical plumbers to repair someblockages, but we don't fully understand how this living organdeteriorates or repairs itself over time. Researchers at the University of Washington have studied vesselwalls and found the cells pull more tightly together, reducingvascular leakage, in areas of fast-flowing blood. The finding couldinfluence how doctors design drugs to treat high cholesterol , or how cardiac surgeons plan their procedures. Their paper will be published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory Physiology. "Our results indicate that these cells can sense the kind of flowthat they're in, and structurally change how they hold themselvestogether," said lead author Nathan Sniadecki, a UW assistantprofessor of mechanical engineering. "This highlights the role thatcellular forces play in the progression of cardiovascular disease." It's known that the arteries carrying blood are leakier in areas ofslow flow, promoting cholesterol buildup in those areas. Butmedical researchers believed this leakage was mostly biochemical -that cells would sense the slower flow and modify how proteins andenzymes function inside the cell to allow for more exchange. The new results show that, like a group of schoolchildren huddlingcloser in a gust of wind, the cells also pull more tightly togetherwhen the blood is flowing past. "The mechanical tugging force leads to a biochemical change thatallows more and more proteins at the membrane to glue together,"Sniadecki said. "We're still trying to understand what's happeninghere, and how mechanical tugging leads more proteins to localizeand glue at the interface." Sniadecki's group looks at the biomechanics of individual cells.For this experiment, they grew a patch of human endothelial cells,the thin layer of cells that line the inner walls of arteries andveins and act as a sort of nonstick coating for the vessels' walls.They grew the patch on an area about the width of a human hair,manufactured with 25 by 25 tiny flexible silicon posts. The researchers then looked at how much the cells bent the postsunder different flow conditions in order to calculate how stronglythe cells were tugging on their neighbors. When the flow was fast,the force between the cells increased, while the gaps between cellsshrank. Knowing how cells respond to blood flow could help find new drugsto promote this tugging between cells. Better understanding of theinteraction between blood flow and heart health could also guidesurgeries. "People could do simulations so a surgeon goes, 'Ah, I should cuthere versus over here, because that reconstruction will be asmoother vessel and will lead to fewer complications down the line,or as I put this stent in, put it here and make it more aerodynamicin design,'" Sniadecki said. Additional References Citations. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China 4-Axis CNC Milling , Over Mold, and more. For more , please visit CNC Machining Parts today!
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