Structural variations of endothelial cell monolayer under startup shear conditions

Abstract

We study the response of an endothelial cell monolayer lining the bottom surface of a cartesian Couette geometry in variations of critical shearing parameters that affect the fluid environment, such as the gap distance between the upper moving and the bottom stationary plates and the velocity of the moving plate. Specifically, we propose an in silico rheometric emulation based on startup shear experiments in a representative two-dimensional domain of the monolayer that accounts for the interaction of the blood plasma and the deformable multilayer poroelastic endothelial cells. We present quantitative predictions for the shear and normal stresses on each cell compartment (membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus) and their structural changes. We show that the variation of the Wall Shear Stress (WSS) along the cell membrane is considered significant and strongly dependent on the shape of the cell, while membrane thinning is more prominent at the locus of high WSS in the range of physiological velocities. However, under extreme velocities, wall thinning prevails at the locus of flow stagnation.