Atherosclerosis and endothelium. Part 1. A simple method of endothelial cell culture from human atherosclerotic aorta.

A simple and highly reproducible culture method of aortic endothelial cells from cadaver is herein reported. Major bacterial contamination could be prevented by administration of an antibiotic cocktail consisting of gentamicin, ampicillin, and amphotericin B. Endothelial cells from the thoracic aorta were viable up to 17 hours postmortem and successfully culturable from the aorta by dispase desquamation from the subendothelial substrate. The cultured cells varied in size and shape depending on the degree of individual atherosclerotic severity and could be divided into two major subtypes. The first type is a small and polygonal uniform cell (typical endothelial cell) and the second type is a mixture of spindle and giant bizarre cells often associated with multinuclei (variant endothelial cell). Both types of endothelial cells have characteristics specific for endothelium, such as factor VIII related surface antigen, Weibel-Palade body, and high productivity of prostacyclin.