Department of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221006, Jiangsu, China.
Research Facility Center for Morphology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221004, Jiangsu, China.
Microvasc Res. 2017 Nov;114:84-91. doi: 10.1016/j.mvr.2017.06.007. Epub 2017 Jun 28.
Angiogenesis assays are important tools for studying both the mechanisms of cardiac angiogenesis and the potential development of therapeutic strategies to ischemic heart diseases. Currently, various assays have been used to quantitate cardiac tubule formation, yet no consensus has been reached regarding a suitable assay for evaluating the efficacy of angiogenic stimulants or inhibitors. Most in vivo angiogenesis assays are complex and difficult to interpret, whereas traditional in vitro angiogenesis models measure only one aspect of this process. To bridge the gap between in vivo and in vitro angiogenesis assays, here, we have developed a novel modified cardiac explants matrigel assay. We observed the morphology of vascular sprouts formed in three forms of cardiac angiogenesis assays then used quantitative image analyses to further compare the morphological features of vascular sprouts formed in two cardiac explants angiogenesis assays. Vascular sprouts formed in the fibronectin group were less and short, whereas those formed in the matrigel group were significantly longer, consisting of more area and branch points. Moreover, we found the benefits of this matrigel model by observing the ability of cardiac explants to form vascular sprouts under normoxia or hypoxia condition in the presence of angiogenic stimulant and inhibitor, VEGF and PEDF. In summary, the above analyses revealed that the morphology of vascular sprouts formed in this model appears more representative of myocardial capillary formation in vivo, and this accessible, reliable angiogenic assay is a more physiologically relevant assay which allows further assessment of pharmacologic compounds on cardiac angiogenesis.
血管生成分析是研究心脏血管生成机制和缺血性心脏病治疗策略发展潜力的重要工具。目前，已经使用了各种分析方法来定量测量管状结构的形成，但对于评估血管生成刺激剂或抑制剂的疗效，还没有达成共识。大多数体内血管生成分析都很复杂，难以解释，而传统的体外血管生成模型仅测量这个过程的一个方面。为了弥合体内和体外血管生成分析之间的差距，我们在这里开发了一种新的改良心脏外植体基质胶分析方法。我们观察了三种心脏血管生成分析中形成的血管芽的形态，然后使用定量图像分析进一步比较了两种心脏外植体血管生成分析中形成的血管芽的形态特征。纤维连接蛋白组形成的血管芽较少且较短，而基质胶组形成的血管芽明显更长，包含更多的区域和分支点。此外，我们通过观察在存在血管生成刺激物 VEGF 和 PEDF 时，心脏外植体在常氧或低氧条件下形成血管芽的能力，发现了这种基质胶模型的好处。综上所述，上述分析表明，该模型中形成的血管芽的形态似乎更能代表体内心肌毛细血管的形成，这种易于操作、可靠的血管生成分析是一种更具生理相关性的分析方法，可以进一步评估药物化合物对心脏血管生成的影响。
