Abstract: Vascular diseases due to atherosclerosis have become amajor cause of human mortality and morbidity in modern society.Although atherosclerosis is a multifactor disease, the localization ofthis disease strongly suggests the involvement of local hemodynamics inthe vascular system. In past years, researchers have mainly focusedtheir attention to the effects of stresses, especially the flow-inducedwall shear stress, on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. In thisreview, the hemodynamic factors involved in atherogenesiswere discussed, and a flow-dependent concentration polarization hypothesiswas proposed to explain the localization of atherogenesis.