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Design Of A Novel Tissue Culture System To Subject Aortic Tissue To Multidirectional Bicuspid Aortic Valve Wall Shear Stress, Janet Liu

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Blood vessels experience complex hemodynamics marked by three-dimensionality and pulsatility. Arterial endothelial cells interact with the characteristics of the fluid wall shear stress (WSS) to maintain homeostasis or promote disease states. In particular, the bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), a congenital heart valve anatomy consisting of two leaflets instead of three, is associated with aortic complications presumably promoted by hemodynamic abnormalities. While devices have been used to test this hypothesis, their capabilities are limited to the generation of time-varying WSS magnitude in one direction. However, the increased flow helicity generated by BAVs in the aorta is expected to result in increased …