Mentoring for INnovative Design Solutions (MINDS): Key Design Considerations and Collaborative Teamwork across Universities for Clinical Translation.

The main purpose of this paper is to share the Mentoring for INnovative Design Solutions (MINDS) Scholars Program developed by Alpha Eta Mu Beta, the International Biomedical Engineering Honor Society. The program's goals are to (1) introduce biomedical engineering students to an open-ended design experience as part of interuniversity teams with industry and faculty mentors, and (2) develop the ability to create designs considering clinical translatability on teams with different backgrounds and areas of expertise. MINDS uses an experiential learning approach to (1) enrich student curricular experiences through inter-institutional collaboration, (2) build engineering design skills, including three key design considerations for clinical/commercial success: intellectual property protection, regulatory strategy, and market identification; and (3) emphasize the importance of end-user considerations.

Discussion: "Comparison of Statistical Methods for Assessing Spatial Correlations Between Maps of Different Arterial Properties" (Rowland, E. M., Mohamied, Y., Chooi, K. Y., Bailey, E. L., and Weinberg, P. D., 2015, ASME J. Biomech. Eng., 137(10), p. 101003): An Alternative Approach Using Segmentation Based on Local Hemodynamics.

The biological response of living arteries to mechanical forces is an important component of the atherosclerotic process and is responsible, at least in part, for the well-recognized spatial variation in atherosusceptibility in man. Experiments to elucidate this response often generate maps of force and response variables over the arterial surface, from which the force-response relationship is sought. Rowland et al.

Endothelial gene expression in regions of defined shear exposure in the porcine iliac arteries.

The effect of hemodynamic shear stress on endothelial gene expression was investigated in the porcine iliac arteries. A novel statistical approach was applied to computational fluid dynamics simulations of the iliac artery flow field to identify three anatomical regions likely to experience high, medium, and low levels of time average shear stress magnitude. Subsequently, endothelial cell mRNA was collected from these regions in the iliac arteries of six swine and analyzed by DNA microarray.

Individual and combined effects of shear stress magnitude and spatial gradient on endothelial cell gene expression.

The apparent tendency of atherosclerotic lesions to form in complex blood flow environments has led to many theories regarding the importance of hemodynamic forces in endothelium-mediated atherosusceptibility. The effects of shear stress magnitude and spatial shear stress gradient on endothelial cell gene expression in vitro were examined in this study. Converging-width flow channels were designed to impose physiological ranges of shear stress gradient and magnitude on porcine aortic endothelial cells, and real-time quantitative PCR was performed to evaluate their expression of five genes of interest.

Distinct profiles of endothelial gene expression in hyperpermeable regions of the porcine aortic arch and thoracic aorta.

Among the early events associated with atherosclerotic lesion development are increased macromolecular permeability of the endothelium and expression of genes that affect inflammation and oxidative state. The purpose of this study was to measure the expression of several atherosclerosis-related genes in endothelial cells scraped from arch and thoracic regions of the porcine aorta exhibiting elevated permeability. Aortae were collected from six swine that were exposed to circulating Evans blue dye (EBD), a marker of transendothelial albumin permeability.

Statistical hemodynamics: a tool for evaluating the effect of fluid dynamic forces on vascular biology in vivo.

Background: In vivo experimentation is the most realistic approach for exploring the vascular biological response to the hemodynamic stresses that are present in life. Post-mortem vascular casting has been used to define the in vivo geometry for hemodynamic simulation; however, this procedure damages or destroys the tissue and cells on which biological assays are to be performed.

Method Of Approach: Two statistical approaches, regional (RSH) and linear (LSH) statistical hemodynamics, are proposed and illustrated, in which flow simulations from one series of experiments are used to define a best estimate of the hemodynamic environment in a second series.

Effect of hypercholesterolemia on transendothelial EBD-albumin permeability and lipid accumulation in porcine iliac arteries.

Hypercholesterolemia is associated with increased cardiovascular mortality and is known to promote the advancement of atherosclerotic lesions in experimental animal models. Juvenile swine were fed a normal or high-cholesterol diet, and the transendothelial macromolecular permeability of the external iliac arteries of these animals was assessed by measuring the uptake rate of circulating Evans blue dye (EBD). The extent and patterns of lipid-containing lesions were also determined using en face staining with Oil Red O (ORO).

Interaction of wall shear stress magnitude and gradient in the prediction of arterial macromolecular permeability.

Large spatial shear stress gradients have anecdotally been associated with early atherosclerotic lesion susceptibility in vivo and have been proposed as promoters of endothelial cell dysfunction in vitro. Here, experiments are presented in which several measures of the fluid dynamic shear stress, including its gradient, at the walls of in vivo porcine iliac arteries, are correlated against the transendothelial macromolecular permeability of the vessels. The fluid dynamic measurements are based on postmortem vascular casts, and permeability is measured from Evans blue dye (EBD) uptake.

Spatial comparison between wall shear stress measures and porcine arterial endothelial permeability.

A better understanding of how hemodynamic factors affect the integrity and function of the vascular endothelium is necessary to appreciate more fully how atherosclerosis is initiated and promoted. A novel technique is presented to assess the relation between fluid dynamic variables and the permeability of the endothelium to macromolecules. Fully anesthetized, domestic swine were intravenously injected with the albumin marker Evans blue dye, which was allowed to circulate for 90 min.