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Journal of Porous Media

ISSN for PRINT: 1091-028X

Institutional price:	$713.00
Issues per year:	8

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2006, Volume9

102 pages

Issue price - $155.00

Endothelial Surface Reorganization: Effects of a Porous Surface Layer

Haidong Liu
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115

Uichiro Narusawa
Department of Mechanical, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA

ABSTRACT

Endothelial cells that constitute the wall of the blood vessels are known to change their shape responding to hydrodynamic shear. The plasma membrane of the endothelial cell is covered with a high-porosity porous macromolecular surface layer [endothelial surface layer (ESL)]. The wavy membrane surface is analyzed to examine effects of the presence of the ESL on the rate of entropy generation (viscous dissipation) due to the viscous flow over the cell, based on the Darcy-Brinkman equation for porous media. The hydrodynamic interactions at the interface between the ESL and the viscous flow as a region of signal generation is found to be sensitive to the porous structure of ESL in terms of the rate of energy dissipation at the cell peak although the total rate of energy dissipation over the entire cell surface remains approximately the same as the case neglecting the hydrodynamic effects of ESL.