Hemodynamic regulation allows stable growth of microvascular networks

How do vessels find optimal radii? Capillaries are known to adapt their radii to maintain the shear stress of blood flow at the vessel wall at a set point, yet models of adaptation purely based on average shear stress have not been able to produce complex loopy networks that resemble real microvascular systems. For narrow vessels where red blood cells travel in a single file, the shear stress on vessel endothelium peaks sharply when a red blood cell passes through. We show that stable shear-stress-based adaptation is possible if vessel shear stress set points are cued to the stress peaks. Model networks that respond to peak stresses alone can quantitatively reproduce the observed zebrafish trunk microcirculation, including its adaptive trajectory when hematocrit changes or parts of the network are amputated. Our work reveals the potential for mechanotransduction alone to generate stable hydraulically tuned microvascular networks.