Effect of ambient oxygen on cultured endothelial cells from different vascular beds.

By the use of production of neutrophil chemoattractant activity as a marker, we investigated the responsiveness of endothelial cells of four different anatomic origins to altered ambient oxygen tension to determine whether genetic or conditioned variation existed. The ability of bovine aortic, bovine pulmonary arterial, bovine coronary arterial, and human umbilical vein endothelial cells incubated in decreased oxygen concentrations to release neutrophil chemoattractant activity was assessed. Bovine aortic, human umbilical vein, and bovine coronary arterial endothelial cells produce neutrophil chemoattractant activity in response to 10 or 3% ambient oxygen in vitro. In contrast, 0% ambient oxygen is required for appearance of neutrophil chemoattractant activity from pulmonary artery endothelial cells. These studies suggest that there may be genetic or conditioned variations in the response of endothelium from different vascular beds to decreased oxygen tensions. Furthermore, endothelial cells may play a role in neutrophil-mediated tissue injury during ischemia.