What is it about?

In conditions such as glaucoma, pulmonary oedema, acute compartment syndrome, blood vessels experience increased pressure due to excessive swelling or bleeding. This study investigated the impact of increased pressure on endothelial cells, the chief cells lining the inside of blood vessels.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Compared to the number of studies that have investigated the impact of shear stress on endothelial cells, surprisingly very little is known about the impact of acute increase in pressure on endothelial cells. This becomes particularly important in condition such as glaucoma, diabetes, acute compartment syndrome where the increased pressure of the affected tissue causes the small blood vessels to collapse, eventually leading to the exacerbating effects of vascular dysfunction. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of elevated pressure induced vascular dysfunction can lead to potential diagnostic and therapeutic prospects.

Perspectives

Writing this article was an intimidating, yet pleasurable task for me. Intimidating because of the multi-disciplinary nature of the research involved. Working with primary HUVECs can be tricky by itself and culturing them within microfluidic devices can be even trickier. Performing experiments at the interface of microfluidics, cell culture, cell signalling and advanced microscopy was a soul-fulfilling experience. Especially considering the lack of literature around the acute effects of increased pressure on endothelial cells, I hope this article becomes more interesting and pertinent for the readers as the field expands.

Pranav Vasanthi Bathrinarayanan
University of Birmingham

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Elevated hydrostatic pressure destabilizes VE-cadherin junctions in a time and shear stress dependent manner: An endothelium-on-chip study, APL Bioengineering, August 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0275985.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page