The use of organ cultures to study vessel wall pathobiology.

Organ culture of the vessel wall is an useful in vitro method to study vascular cell biology. The intact vessel allows for the study of cell-cell and cell-substratum interactions including the structure and function of the vessel wall matrix. Long term organ cultures of porcine aorta show that neointimal formation is due primarily to cell proliferation of pre-existing intimal smooth muscle cells. Neointimal formation in these cultures is more pronounced in the presence of an endothelium that is turning over. In endothelial wound repair studies, the endothelium of the organ culture shows some important differences when compared to tissue culture studies in monolayer culture. Thus, vascular organ cultures can be successfully used to study vessel wall biology in health and disease.