Shear Stress, Mechanosensors, and Atherosclerosis

Endothelial cells line the innermost layer of a blood vessel and regulate multiple functional aspects of vascular homeostasis, such as vascular tone, inflammation, vessel permeability, and angiogenesis. Endothelial cells possess multiple specialized mechanosensing molecules or microstructures (termed “mechanosensors”) that sense different patterns of blood flow (in a concerted manner). Mechanosensing is a prerequisite step for integrating the mechanosignal into endothelial cells and leads to different patterns of endothelial gene expression. Emerging evidence using genetically engineered mice and pharmacological modulators has shown that these mechanosensors are critical regulators of endothelial function and probably the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis-related cardiovascular diseases. In this chapter, we delineate the specific 2role of each identified mechanosensor in vascular endothelial cell biology and atherosclerosis and highlight the possibility of targeting these mechanosensors to treat atherosclerosis.