Organ culture as a standard test for evaluation of tissue engineered arteries

There is a need for a tool to evaluate the mechanical and biological functions of tissue engineered arteries as well as other new synthetic vascular grafts. The specific aim of this study was to develop a bench top artery organ culture system as a standard test system to study vascular biology and evaluate tissue engineered arteries. The authors have developed an ex vivo perfusion organ culture system that mimics the hemodynamic environment of arteries, including the shear stress produced by lumen blood flow, the tensile stress produced by blood pressure, and the axial stretch. Tubular segments of porcine carotid arteries were cultured with pulsatile perfusion of DMEM supplemented with calf serum under mimic in vivo pressure and flow. Vessel viability was demonstrated by histology, cell mitochondrial MTT stain, vascular tone, and contractility assay using norepinephrine (NE), acetylcholine (ACh) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP). Results show that arteries maintain viable mitochondria, basal tone; and strong diameter responses to NE, ACh, and SNP after 7 days in the organ culture, e.g. the diameter contracted ~16% in response to NE (10^-5M)