Characterization of the in vivo wall shear stress environment of human fetus umbilical arteries and veins.

The endothelial cells of the umbilical vessels are frequently used in mechanobiology experiments. They are known to respond to wall shear stress (WSS) of blood flow, which influences vascular growth and remodeling. The in vivo environment of umbilical vascular WSS, however, is not well characterized. In this study, we performed detailed characterization of the umbilical vascular WSS environments using clinical ultrasound scans combined with computational simulations. Doppler ultrasound scans of 28 normal human fetuses from 32nd to 33rd gestational weeks were investigated. Vascular cross-sectional areas were quantified through 3D reconstruction of the vascular geometry from 3D B-mode ultrasound images, and flow velocities were quantified through pulse wave Doppler. WSS in umbilical vein was computed with Poiseuille's equation, whereas WSS in umbilical artery was obtained via computational fluid dynamics simulations of the helical arterial geometry. Results showed that blood flow velocity for umbilical artery and vein did not correlate with vascular sizes, suggesting that velocity had a very weak trend with or remained constant over vascular sizes. Average WSS for umbilical arteries and vein was 2.81 and 0.52 Pa, respectively. Umbilical vein WSS showed a significant negative correlation with the vessel diameter, but umbilical artery did not show any correlation. We hypothesize that this may be due to differential regulation of vascular sizes based on WSS sensing. Due to the helical geometry of umbilical arteries, bending of the umbilical cord did not significantly alter the vascular resistance or WSS, unlike that in the umbilical veins. We hypothesize that the helical shape of umbilical arteries may be an adaptation feature to render a higher constancy of WSS and flow in the arteries despite umbilical cord bending.