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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2007;27:346.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Atherosclerosis and Lipoproteins

Hemodynamic Shear Stresses in Mouse Aortas

Implications for Atherogenesis

Jin Suo; Dardo E. Ferrara; Dan Sorescu; Robert E. Guldberg; W. Robert Taylor; Don P. Giddens

From the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (J.S., W.R.T., D.P.G.), Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University; the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (R.E.G.), Georgia Institute of Technology; the Department of Medicine (D.E.F., D.S., W.R.T.), Division of Cardiology, Emory University; and the Atlanta VA Medical Center (W.R.T.), Atlanta, Ga.

Correspondence to Don P. Giddens, PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology, 225 North Avenue (Tech Tower), Atlanta, GA 30332-0360. E-mail don.giddens{at}coe.gatech.edu

Objective— The hemodynamic environment is a determinant of susceptibility to atherosclerosis in the vasculature. Although mouse models are commonly used in atherosclerosis studies, little is known about local variations in wall shear stress (WSS) in the mouse and whether the levels of WSS are comparable to those in humans. The objective of this study was to determine WSS values in the mouse aorta and to relate these to expression of gene products associated with atherosclerosis.

Methods and Results— Using micro-CT and ultrasound methodologies we developed a computational fluid dynamics model of the mouse aorta and found values of WSS to be much larger than those for humans. We also used a quantum dot-based approach to study vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 expression on the aortic intima and demonstrated that increased expression for these molecules occurs where WSS was relatively low for the mouse.

Conclusions— Despite large differences in WSS in the two species, the spatial distributions of atherogenic molecules in the mouse aorta are similar to atherosclerotic plaque localization found in human aortas. These results suggest that relative differences in WSS or in the direction of WSS, as opposed to the absolute magnitude, may be relevant determinants of flow-mediated inflammatory responses.

We have demonstrated that wall shear stresses in the mouse aorta are much higher than in humans. Despite this difference in magnitude, the spatial distributions of atherogenic molecules in the mouse aorta are similar to plaque localization found in the human aorta.

Key Words: atherosclerosis • wall shear stress • computational fluid dynamics • micro CT • two-photon microscopy • adhesion molecules

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