Normal and shear stresses influence the spatial distribution of intracellular adhesion molecule-1 expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells exposed to sudden expansion flow.

Patterns in cell adhesion molecule expression by endothelial cells may play a role in atherogenesis. Previous studies have shown dependence of intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) on shear stress and have indirectly linked ICAM-1 expression to spatial gradients in shear stress. The spatial distribution of ICAM-1 in HUVEC pre-exposed to flow for 8h was determined using fluorescence microscopy and a sudden expansion flow chamber with a 2.66 expansion ratio to simulate gradients in wall shear stress found near arterial branches in vivo. When ICAM-1 expression in the disturbed flow region was compared to theoretical stress distributions obtained from a computational model of sudden expansion flow, a modest trend (R2 = 0.327, p < 0.01)was observed between ICAM-1 and shear stress but the correlation between ICAM-1 and shear stress gradient was insignificant. In contrast, a moderately strong trend (R2 = 0.873, p < 0.01) was evident between ICAM-1 expression and the component of normal stress induced by the expansion. Thus, in this in vitro model, normal stress arising from sudden expansion flow modulates the effect of shear stress on ICAM-1 expression.