van den Broek Chantal N, Pullens Rolf A A, Frøbert Ole, Rutten Marcel C M, den Hartog Wilfred F, van de Vosse Frans N
Department of Biomedical Engineering: Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Biorheology. 2008;45(6):651-61.
Physiological wall shear rates and stresses in vessel culture or tissue engineering are relevant for maintaining endothelial cell (EC) integrity. To this end, the culture medium should have an appropriate viscosity. The viscosity of a standard culture medium was increased using xanthan gum (XG) and compared with literature data on whole blood, resulting in a medium with blood-analog shear-thinning behavior (XG-medium). The measured osmolality of the XG-medium was 285+/-2 mOsm kg(-1), which is within a physiologically acceptable range. The XG-medium was compared to standard medium to verify whether XG alters vascular cell function. First, the effect of XG on the growth of human EC monolayers was determined. In addition, to study whether XG changes drug-induced vasoconstriction or endothelium-dependent vasodilation, different drugs were administered to porcine coronary artery rings in a solution with or without XG, measuring the isometric force developed. XG did not influence EC growth, nor did it change drug-induced vascular tone. Moreover, the ECs aligned in the direction of flow after 24 h of physiological shearing with XG-medium. We conclude that, unlike standard culture media, XG-medium as a blood-analog culture medium has rheological properties suitable for use in vessel culture and tissue engineering to induce physiological wall shear stresses at physiological flow rates.
血管培养或组织工程中的生理壁面剪切速率和应力对于维持内皮细胞（EC）的完整性至关重要。为此，培养基应具有适当的粘度。使用黄原胶（XG）提高标准培养基的粘度，并与全血的文献数据进行比较，得到一种具有类似血液剪切变稀行为的培养基（XG培养基）。XG培养基的实测渗透压为285±2 mOsm kg⁻¹，处于生理可接受范围内。将XG培养基与标准培养基进行比较，以验证XG是否会改变血管细胞功能。首先，确定XG对人EC单层生长的影响。此外，为了研究XG是否会改变药物诱导的血管收缩或内皮依赖性血管舒张，在含有或不含有XG的溶液中，将不同药物施用于猪冠状动脉环，测量产生的等长力。XG既不影响EC生长，也不改变药物诱导的血管张力。此外，在用XG培养基进行24小时生理剪切后，EC沿流动方向排列。我们得出结论，与标准培养基不同，XG培养基作为一种类似血液的培养基，具有适合在血管培养和组织工程中使用的流变学特性，能够在生理流速下诱导生理壁面剪切应力。
