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Bioengineering functional human aortic vascular smooth‐muscle strips in vitro
Author(s) -
Hecker Louise,
Khait Luda,
Welsh Michael J.,
Birla Ravi
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
biotechnology and applied biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1470-8744
pISSN - 0885-4513
DOI - 10.1042/ba20070139
Subject(s) - contraction (grammar) , vascular smooth muscle , in vitro , phenylephrine , muscle contraction , in vivo , anatomy , biology , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , biomedical engineering , biophysics , smooth muscle , medicine , biochemistry , endocrinology , blood pressure
The contraction and relaxation of VSM (vascular smooth muscle) are responsible for the maintenance of vascular tone, which is a major determinant of blood pressure. However, the molecular events leading to the contraction and relaxation of VSM are poorly understood. The development of three‐dimensional bioengineered tissues provides an opportunity to investigate the molecular events controlling vascular tone in vitro . In the present study we used fibrin‐gel casting to bioengineer functional VSM strips from primary human aortic VSM cells. Our bioengineered VSM strips are functionally similar to VSM in vivo and remained viable in culture for up to 5 weeks. VSM strips demonstrate spontaneous basal tone and can generate an active force (contraction) of up to 85.2 μN on stimulation with phenylephrine. Bioengineered VSM strips exhibited Ca 2+ ‐dependent contraction and calcium‐independent relaxation. The development of functional bioengineered VSM tissue provides a new in vitro model system that can be used to investigate the molecular events controlling vascular tone.