A Simple and Convenient Method to Isolate and Culture Rat Aorta Endothelial Cells

Author Info

Ruixiang Li Fanxing Meng Yonggang Zhao

Corresponding Author

Fanxing Meng
Department of Pathophysiology, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, China

A B S T R A C T

Aim: Endothelial injury results in vascular disorders. Culture of endothelial cells (ECs) is important to investigate the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. ECs of rat aorta are widely applied in these researches. However, there are many problems to isolate them, which make it hard to culture primary ECs. In the present study, we established a simple and convenient method to isolate and culture rat aorta ECs. Methods: Two 5ml centrifuge tubes were prepared. An opening (3 mm × 25 mm) was made in one tube wall while the other was cut in half longitudinally. After the rat aorta was dissected along one side and attached to the wall of the half tube, the tube with an opening and the half tube with aorta were mated and secured by a rotund metal clip. Then, ECs were digested via the opening by 0.2% collagenase I at 37℃ for 1 h and identified by immunofluorescence of von Willebrand factor (vWF) and smooth muscle actin (SMA). Results: A simple method for isolating ECs were established. Cultured ECs exhibited typical “cobblestone” morphology at confluence. vWF was positively expressed in the ECs, and neither the negative stain of vWF nor the positive stain of SMA was found. Conclusion: This simple and convenient method to isolate and culture ECs of rat aorta can be implemented with readily available 5ml centrifuge tubes and will greatly benefit the research of vascular diseases.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Mon 07, Dec 2020
Accepted: Mon 28, Dec 2020
Published: Thu 21, Jan 2021

Copyright

© 2023 Fanxing Meng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JICOA.2021.01.03