Effects of fluid flow on living vascular cells.

Shear stress produced by a flowing fluid has been found to cause changes in the structure and function of vascular endothelial cells. They tend to become elongated and aligned with the direction of flow. They respond to changes in fluid shear stress (either from low shear to high shear or vice versa) by transiently increasing fluid-phase endocytosis. And they are capable of producing intracellular actin and myosin filaments that are oriented in the flow direction.