Early response of endothelial cells to flow is mediated by VE-cadherin.
Endothelial cells are known to respond to flow onset by increasing actin turnover rate. Current models assume that an increase in the actin turnover rate should result in a rise in cell crawling speed. Here we report that confluent endothelial monolayer shows an unexpected behavior: cell crawling speed decreases by approximately 40% within the first 30 min of flow onset. A drop in crawling speed has not been observed in either subconfluent endothelial cells or in VE-cadherin-deficient cells. We found that flow onset caused an increase in the number of VE-cadherin-GFP molecules in the junctions and elicited changes in the cytoskeleton-associated fractions of alpha, beta -catenins and VE-cadherin. Flow application also increased the strength of interactions of endothelial cells with surfaces coated with recombinant VE-cadherin. These observations suggest that endothelial cell junctional proteins respond to flow transiently by increasing the strength of intercellular attachments early after flow onset and support the view on the active role of intercellular adhesions in mechanotransduction.
Rabodzey
Aleksandr
A
Hatsopoulos Microfluids Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Alexandr_Rabodzey@hms.harvard.edu
Yao
Yu
Y
Luscinskas
Francis W
FW
Shaw
Sunil K
SK
Dewey
C Forbes
CF
D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism*; D051177:Catenins / Q000378:metabolism; D002417:Cattle; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D022001:Focal Adhesions / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D006801:Humans; D007365:Intercellular Junctions / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular / Q000502:physiology; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D000099152:Cadherin 5
D015703:Antigens, CD; D015820:Cadherins; D051177:Catenins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D000099152:Cadherin 5