Hemodynamics in the Mouse Aortic Arch as Assessed by MRI, Ultrasound and Numerical Modeling.
Feintuch A, Ruengsakulrach P, Lin A, Zhang J, Zhou Y, Bishop J, Davidson L, Courtman D, Foster FS, Steinman D, Henkelman RM, Ethier CR.
Mouse Imaging Centre, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2006 Sep 29;

• > Mice are widely used to study arterial disease in humans, and the pathogenesis of arterial diseases is known to be strongly influenced by hemodynamic factors. It is therefore of interest to characterize the hemodynamic environment in the mouse arterial tree. Previous measurements have suggested that many relevant hemodynamic variables are similar between the mouse and the human. Here we use a combination of Doppler ultrasound (Vevo 770, VisualSonics) and MRI measurements, coupled with numerical modelling techniques, to characterize the hemodynamic environment in the mouse aortic arch at high spatial resolution. We find that the hemodynamically-induced stresses on arterial endothelial cells are much larger in magnitude and more spatially uniform in the mouse than in the human, an effect that can be explained by fluid mechanical scaling principles. This surprising finding seems to be at variance with currently accepted models of the role of hemodynamics in atherogenesis and the known distribution of atheromatous lesions in mice. Key words: hemodynamics, mouse , imaging, atherogenesis, shear stress.