ABSTRACT
AIM:To establish a fast , accurate and economical technique for culturing mouse pulmonary arte-riolar smooth muscle cells ( PASMCs ) , and to explore the effects of hypoxia on the proliferation and apoptosis of the PASMCs.METHODS:In sterile condition, the pulmonary artery was isolated from the male BALB/c mice by digesting with collagenase I, and the cells were cultured in fetal bovine serum-coated flask.Centrifugal procedure was not used dur-ing the cell passage .The cell morphology was observed under an inverted phase-contrast microscope .α-Smooth muscle ac-tin was identified by immunocytochemistry and immunofluorescence .The effects of hypoxia on the proliferation and apopto-sis of the PASMCs were detected by CCK-8 assay and TUNEL assay .RESULTS:PASMCs were identified by the methods of immunocytochemistry , immunofluorescence staining and observation of morphology .Unlike the rat PASMCs with typical subcultured peak-vally pattern, the mouse PASMCs showed a lot different without a peak-vally pattern.The cells could be subcultured after 5 d to 7 d and there was 3 to 5 generations depending on the activity of the cells .CCK-8 assay demonstra-ted that the A values of PASMCs exposed to hypoxia increased after 24 h ( P<0.05) as compared with normoxia .TUNEL result showed that the apoptotic index of the PASMCs in hypoxia decreased after 24 h (P<0.05).CONCLUSION:This technique for obtaining cultured mouse PASMCs is simple , fast, accurate and economical .The digestion time is easy to control.Hypoxia promotes the proliferation and inhibits the apoptosis of PASMCs .