Fig. 5. Caveolae are concentrated in the upstream region of shear stressed cells. Primary endothelial cell cultures were grown on plastic coverslips instead of glass coverslips and exposed to 20 dynes/cm² shear stress for 24 hours. The coverslips were marked to indicate the direction of laminar flow, fixed in glutaraldehyde and oriented in the Epon plastic during embedding so that sections could be made perpendicular to plane of the coverslip. Thin sections were made and viewed directly. Large arrow indicates the direction of laminar flow while the small arrows (inset) indicate regions where caveolae have accumulated. The white asterisk is a region where caveolae appear to be interacting with smooth ER. Bar, 0.2 µm (A); 0.1 µm (B).

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