Fibronectin enhances early shear stress resistance of seeded adult human venous endothelial cells.

An in vitro parallel plate perfusion chamber was used to study the shear stress resistance of seeded adult human saphenous vein endothelial cells (AHSVECs) on glass surfaces coated with different substrates. Endothelial cells were seeded onto glass slides precoated with these substrates and then exposed to pulsatile flow with an average shear stress of 8 dyn/cm2 for 1 hr. After AHSVEC attachment periods of 15 min, 1 hr, and 2 hr, flow dislodged all but 1.4, 30.4, and 72.2%, respectively, of cells that had been seeded onto 1% gelatin. Control slides that were not exposed to flow retained 12.9% (P less than 0.03), 49.8% (NS), and 95.2% (NS) of seeded cells. Precoating the slides with 10 micrograms/ml fibronectin resulted in 69.4, 89.5, and 97.7% of cells remaining after flow, compared with 6.4% (P less than 0.03), 53.7% (NS), and 93.3% (NS), respectively, when using matched slides coated with 1% gelatin. Results with 20% fetal bovine serum as the substrate were not statistically different from those obtained with 1% gelatin. We conclude that fibronectin enhances the early attachment of AHSVECs to artificial surfaces and is, therefore, potentially useful for increasing attached cell yields on arterial prostheses prepared with immediate cell seeding techniques.