Wall shear stress and atherosclerosis: Numerical blood flow Simulations in the mouse aortic arch

The aims of this study were (1) to demonstrate the feasibility of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling of realistic blood flow in the mouse aortic arch, and (2) to determine the relation of wall shear stress and atherosclerosis in the mouse aortic arch. ApoE knockout mice were chosen for this study. The blood flow fraction in the major branches of the mouse aortic arch was measured by ultrasound biomicroscopy. The geometry of the aortic arch was captured by plastic casting and micro CT imaging. Mouse blood viscosities were measured by rheometry. A pathological examination was performed. A well-validated in-house finite element code, which solves the three dimensional Navier-Stokes equations, was used to compute the wall shear stress and velocity patterns in the ascending aorta and the aortic arch. The distribution of the wall shear stress was correlated with the distribution of the atherosclerosis from the pathological examination in order to investigate the effect of wall shear stress on atherosclerosis. It is concluded that CFD modeling of hemodynamics in the mouse aortic arch is feasible. Qualitative impressions show that atherosclerosis was related with the region of low wall shear stress in mouse aortic arch.