A fluid computational investigation of the effects of shear stress on endothelial cells and macrophages

Several devices which can apply biomechanical stresses, such as shear stress, to living cells are available. However, although once assumed that all cells in these systems were exposed to the same uniform shear stress, many researchers have realized that this is not the case. Using computational fluid dynamics, we have developed shear stress templates which geometrically duplicate an in vitro custom flow cell. These templates allow the user of the flow cell to select a flow rate and expose cells to known levels of shear stress. This will be a valuable asset to investigators who conduct in vitro experiments since it reduces the number of experiments they perform. The template allows the user to select cells exposed to different shear stress levels from one run. We have validated the usefulness of these templates by considering case studies involving endothelial cells and macrophages