Investigation on culture of rat pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells and their viscoelasticity / 生物医学工程学杂志

ABSTRACT

It is the infent of this study to establish a simple method for cultivation of rat pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells(PMVECs) and investigate the viscoelasticity of PMVECs. First, we obtained rat's peripheral pulmonary tissue, which then was cut into small pieces and cultured with 3 ml DMEM containing 20% bovine calf serum, 90 U/ml heparin, 4 mmol L-glutamine, 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 micrograms/ml streptomycin. Next, moved away the pulmonary tissue pieces 60 h later, and started passage 2-4 days after continued culture. Last, digested and separated PMVECs and studied viscoelastic coefficients of PMVECs by using micropipette aspiration technique. The results revealed that the cultured PMVECs showed regular cobblestone morphology and conformed with endothelial cells morphological characterization by phase contrast microscopy. PMVECs elastic modulus K1 was 49.3 +/- 9.2 Pa, K2 was 73.2 +/- 24.8 Pa, and it's viscosity factor mu was 19.2 +/- 7.2 Pa. s. These data demonstrate that it is feasible to cultivate PMVECs with tissue pieces method, and PMVECs is of greater rigidity.