The aortic intima in organ culture. Response to culture conditions and partial endothelial denudation.

A culture technique for whole blood vessel wall that preserves an intact and regenerative endothelium has been developed. The retention of an intact endothelium allows careful observation of the tissue as it responds to culture conditions, responses that include a change of replication timing and the induction of particulate endocytosis. Complete and normal regeneration of the endothelium in explants has made possible evaluation of the differences between the regeneration of endothelial cell monolayers and regeneration of intima in vivo. From these comparisons it appears that the shorter induction time of endothelial migration and proliferation and the more rapid migration in endothelial cell monolayers are due to effects of the culture medium or plastic culture surface, while the higher than normal cell density found in the intima after wound recovery in vivo probably is due to the dynamics of the blood vessel itself. The ability to control cell-cell interactions on the cultured tissue has made possible the investigation of gap junction-mediated metabolic interactions in regenerating intima. Results indicate that the disruptive effects of intimal regeneration do not depend on or produce an obvious change in junction-mediated nucleotide transfer between endothelial cells.