Isolation and culture of adult rat cardiac microvascular endothelial cells / 基础医学与临床

Objective To establish a simple and efficient method for isolation and culture of adult rat cardiac micro-vascular endothelial cells. Methods Wistar rats were anesthetized and thoracotomy was performed. Cardiac micro-vascular endothelial cells were isolated by heart perfusion and enzyme digestion. The morphology and growth curve of the third generation cells were examined by inverted microscopy. Its molecular markers factor Ⅷ-related antigen and CD31 were detected by immunocytochemistry and immunofluoresence. The angiogenic ability was examined by matrigel. Results The primary cultured cardiac microvascular endothelial cells in vitro were polygonal or fusiform with typical paving stone-like growth characteristics. At the same time,the cells were positive stained by factorⅧ-related antigen and CD31 and showed angiogenic ability. Conclusions Cardiac microvascular endothelial cells cul-tured by this method possess high purity. The method is easy to operate and can be used for laboratory and clinical research of cardiovascular diseases.

Simultaneous separation of primary cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts from neonatal rats with density gradient centrifugation / 生理学报

To improve a fast and high-quality isolation method for culturing the primary cardiomyocyte and fibroblast in vitro, the neonatal Wistar rats were decapitated accordingly and left ventricles were isolated under the sterile condition. The ventricles were chopped and digested in the enzyme solution containing 0.5 mg/mL type II collagenase. During this process, the digesting time, frequency and stirring speed, centrifuging frequency and speed were strictly controlled. The cardiomyocytes were separated from the cardiac fibroblast by using the Percoll density gradient centrifugation. The cell viability was tested by staining with 0.2% trypan blue. The purity of cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts were determined by immunoflourescent staining with anti-cTnI, anti-Vimentin and anti-α-SMA antibodies. The results indicated that with this protocol, the viability and purity of cardiomyocytes were 92% and 95%. The automobile pulse of the adhered cardiomyocyte was visible. For fibroblasts, the cell viability and purity were 96% and 94%. Our results demonstrate that this advanced isolation method is reproducible, and can simultaneously produce high-quality primary cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts for the future study.