Abstract
Although atherosclerosis is a multifactorial disease, the role of hemodynamic information has become more important. Low and oscillating wall shear stress (WSS) that changes its direction is associated with the early stage of atherosclerosis. Several in vitro and in vivo models were proposed to reveal the relation between the WSS and the early atherosclerosis. However, these models possess technical limitations in mimicking real physiological conditions and monitoring the developmental course of the early atherosclerosis. In this study, a hypercholesterolaemic zebrafish model is proposed as a novel experimental model to resolve these limitations. Zebrafish larvae are optically transparent, which enables temporal observation of pathological variations under in vivo condition. WSS in blood vessels of 15 days post-fertilisation zebrafish was measured using a micro particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique, and spatial distribution of lipid deposition inside the model was quantitatively investigated after feeding high cholesterol diet for 10 days. Lipids were mainly deposited in blood vessel of low WSS. The oscillating WSS was not induced by the blood flows in zebrafish models. The present hypercholesterolaemic zebrafish would be used as a potentially useful model for in vivo study about the effects of low WSS in the early atherosclerosis.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the major causes of mortality in western countries accounting for one in every three deaths in the US in 2009 [1]
Reynolds number (Re) at vessels A1 and V5 were calculated as 0.005±0.002 and 0.0003±0.0001, respectively
The pulsatility index in the main artery decreases with approaching the tail, and the value is gradually recovered in the veins when the blood is returned to the heart
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the major causes of mortality in western countries accounting for one in every three deaths in the US in 2009 [1]. Most CVDs are closely related to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is usually initiated by an inflammatory process in the endothelial cells (ECs) of blood vessels [2]. The inflammatory process induces lipid-laden materials to deposit on arterial walls [3]. The deposit grows, forms fatty streaks and eventually closes off the affected artery after the formation of early-stage atherosclerosis. The atherosclerotic deposits are predominantly observed in regions of curvature, bifurcation and branching of arterial vessels [4, 5]. Previous studies reported that hemodynamic conditions were disturbed in the regions, and the disturbed flow induces low or high oscillatory wall shear
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