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Updated: Sep 28, 2025
07:30
In Vitro Model of Physiological and Pathological Blood Flow with Application to Investigations of Vascular Cell Remodeling
Published on: November 3, 2015
9.8K
Effects of Pulsatility on Arterial Endothelial and Smooth Muscle Cells
Moustafa Meki1, Ayman El-Baz1, Palaniappan Sethu2
1Bioengineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Cells, Tissues, Organs
|March 28, 2022
Summary
Continuous flow ventricular assist devices (CFVADs) reduce blood pulsatility, potentially causing adverse events. Modulating pump speed to restore pulsatility may normalize cell size in endothelial and smooth muscle cells, improving outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Continuous flow ventricular assist devices (CFVADs) are used for advanced heart failure.
- CFVADs diminish blood pulsatility, linked to adverse events like bleeding and organ failure.
- Pulsatility augmentation via pump speed modulation is a potential strategy to mitigate these risks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of altered pulsatility on vascular cells.
- To evaluate the impact of pulsatility modulation on endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs).
- To assess the utility of a novel microfluidic co-culture model for studying CFVAD-related flow dynamics.
Main Methods:
- Developed a microfluidic co-culture model of human aortic ECs and SMCs.
- Simulated physiological conditions: normal pulsatility (120/80 mmHg, 60 bpm), diminished pulsatility (98/92 mmHg, 60 bpm), and low cyclical frequency (115/80 mmHg, 30 bpm).
- Utilized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to estimate shear stresses and analyzed cell morphology.
Main Results:
- Diminished pulsatility led to significantly smaller ECs and SMCs compared to normal pulsatility.
- Low cyclical frequency normalized EC size but not SMC size.
- SMC size under low frequency was larger than diminished pulsatility but not normalized.
- Peak shear stress was highest in low cyclical frequency, lowest in diminished pulsatility.
Conclusions:
- Altered pulsatility significantly impacts EC and SMC morphology.
- Pressure amplitude modulation may be key for EC normalization.
- Both pressure amplitude and frequency might be necessary for SMC normalization.
- The microfluidic model is suitable for studying CFVAD flow modulation strategies.
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