ABSTRACT
Atherosclerosis is a disease of the large arteries which involves a characteristic accumulation of high molecular weight lipoprotein in the arterial wall [1]. The disease tends to be localized in regions of curvature and branching in arteries where fluid shear stress (shear rate) is altered from its normal patterns in straight vessels [2]. The possible role of fluid mechanics in the localization of atherosclerosis has been debated for many years [3,4]. One possibility considered early on was that the blood phase resistance to
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lipid transport, which could be affected by local fluid mechanics, played a role in the focal accumulation of lipid in arteries. Studies by Caro and Nerem [5], however, showed that the uptake of lipid in arteries could not be correlated with fluid phase mass transport, leading to the conclusion that the wall (endothelium) and not the blood, was the limiting resistance to lipid transport. This suggested that fluid mechanical effects on macromolecular transport were the result of direct mechanical influences on the transport characteristics of the endothelium.
