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Updated: Oct 10, 2026

A Microfluidic System for Modeling Endothelial Dysfunction under Combined Physiological Pulsatile Shear Stress and Oscillatory Hyperglycemia
Published on: May 12, 2026
Mechanometabolic endothelial senescence as a translational framework for cardiometabolic vascular disease and
Li Lanlan1,2, Guo Fan1, Zhao Ran1
1Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, No. 1 Xiyuan Caochang, Haidian District, Beijing, 100091, China.
Abstract:
Cardiometabolic vascular disease (CMVD) is used in this Review as an operational umbrella for vascular injury arising from interacting metabolic, renal and cardiovascular stress, rather than as a universally standardised diagnosis. We examine mechanometabolic endothelial senescence as a framework linking local haemodynamic vulnerability with systemic cardiometabolic load. Evidence from human vascular tissue, clinical vascular-function studies, animal models, flow-controlled systems and endothelial-cell experiments indicates that low or oscillatory shear, matrix stiffness, hyperglycaemia, dyslipidaemia, uraemic and hepatic stress, inflammation and oxidative injury can converge on DNA-damage responses, p53/p21 and p16/pRB signalling, NAD⁺-sirtuin decline, mitochondrial dysfunction, metabolic rewiring and chromatin regulation. Biological sex modifies this framework: endothelial function declines across the menopause transition, whereas direct human arterial evidence suggests that senescence-associated endothelial dysfunction may differ between women and men; however, sex-disaggregated mechanistic data remain sparse. Clinically, flow-mediated dilatation, carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity, coronary flow reserve and the index of microcirculatory resistance provide compartment-specific functional anchors, but none is a direct senescence assay. Evidence in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, chronic kidney disease and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease remains heterogeneous and is strongest in preclinical or mixed translational studies. We therefore propose a staged validation strategy combining endothelial identity, convergent senescence markers, circulating-cell or extracellular-vesicle measures, vascular function and organ-specific outcomes. Mechanometabolic endothelial senescence is best viewed as a context-dependent disease amplifier and testable translational model, not a universal primary cause.
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