Culture of human endothelial cells from umbilical veins.

The present protocol offers an economical option for the isolation and culture of human endothelial cells for vascular cell biology research due to the non-invasive collection procedure being devoid of ethical concerns and ease of the isolation technique, expansion and maintenance under standard cell culture conditions. The human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) model is useful for any research on general properties of human endothelium, but as these cells are of foetal and venous origin, other sources could be more appropriate models for studies on specific pathological areas, for example, atherosclerosis or cancer angiogenesis. Nevertheless, HUVEC still represent the most simple and available human vascular cell type widely used in biomedical research.