Deformation of a model endothelial cell in flow:: A two-dimensional, numerical simulation

Mechanical forces induced by blood flow influence largely endothelial cells' behavior. Also they can modify the expression and distribution of biological receptors, orient cytoskeleton, modify vasoactive factors, etc.. The objective of this study was to determine the deformation of a model endothelial cell exposed to a laminar flow. The cell was supposed to be a two dimensional elastic material. The interaction between the flow and cell deformation was simulated numerically by finite element method. Thus the distributions of mechanical forces on cell surface were obtained. The numerical results showed that the cell deformation depended on imposed flow velocity and that the mechanical stresses on; cell surface were not uniform and lower with deformation than without. These numerical results suggest that it'll be interesting to study eventual correlation between the distribution of cell's biological receptors and that of mechanical factors.