Characterization of unidirectional pulsatile flow in the artificial capillary flow system and parallel plate flow chamber.
The time-dependent change in flow was measured in the artificial capillary flow system (solid line) and parallel plate-type flow chamber (dashed line) as described in “Materials and methods,” revealing a unidirectional sinusoidal pulsatile flow profile. Flow is expressed in mL/min and was used to calculate the corresponding wall shear stress in the artificial capillaries (330 μm diameter) and parallel plate chamber (550 μm height; 0.98 cm wide) expressed in dyne/cm2 on 2 separate axes. Calculated mean, minimal, and maximal shear stresses were 19, 8, and 32 dyne/cm,2respectively, for the artificial capillaries and 12, 6, and 19 dyne/cm,2 respectively, for the parallel plate flow device.
