Figure 5
Swirling flow inhibits autophagy and apoptosis via decreasing wall concentration of ox-LDL on the surface of rabbit thoracic aorta.
(A) The model of the spiral flow guider. The geometrical parameters of the model were based on the measurements of the rabbit thoracic aorta. (B) Plot of area-weighted average of helicity from the origin of the spiral flow model along the aortic segment. The origin is shown as 0 along the 20 mm length of aortic segment. (C) Velocity vector features at 5 cross-sections perpendicular to the tube center axis in the 2 groups, colored by velocity magnitude, showing an apparent helical flow in the aortic segment with the flow guider. Flow velocity in the aortic segment has been redistributed due to the rotation of the flow. (D) Water filtration rate in the two groups. (E) Swirling flow obviously decreases wall concentration of ox-LDL compared with normal flow. (F) Swirling flow protects HSPG damage from ox-LDL, decreases LOX-1 expression, regulates autophagy (expression of LC3, Beclin-1 and Atg5) and apoptosis (expression of Cytochrome c, Bax, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL). The samples were derived from the same experiment and gels/blots were processed in parallel. Abbreviations: C, NF and SF are control, normal flow and swirling flow, respectively. Bar graphs represent data in mean ± SD based on 7 experiments, * P < 0.05 vs. control. # P < 0.05 vs. normal flow.
