Authors
Avinava Roy, Grace K Hinds, Joshua Yu-Chung Liu, Ziqian Yang, Rishab Yanala, Arina E Velieva, Claudia Loebel
Published in
Advanced healthcare materials. Oct 30, 2026. Epub Oct 30, 2026.
Abstract
The vascular system exhibits complex, nonplanar geometries that become further distorted during pathological remodeling, including arterial tortuosity and aneurysms. Although hemodynamic shear stress is a well-established regulator of vascular function, the direct effects of curvature as an intrinsic geometric cue remain poorly defined. This is largely because existing in vitro models are static and fail to capture the dynamic changes that accompany disease progression. To address this gap, we used a magnetoactive hydrogel platform that enables real-time, on-demand curvature of endothelial monolayers to reproduce clinically established tortuosity metrics. Using this system, we found that elevated curvature increased nuclear localization of Yes-associated protein (YAP), with the strongest response in convex relative to concave regions of highly tortuous endothelial monolayers. This mechanosensitive response was accompanied by reduced VE-Cadherin junctional thickness and increased membrane localization of endothelial nitric oxide synthase. These findings identify local curvature, independent of shear stress, as a regulator of endothelial cell mechanosensing and function, and establish a dynamic hydrogel platform for isolating geometric regulation from shear stress inputs in vascular mechanobiology.
PMID:
42963196
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 31 Oct 2026.
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