CULTURE OF SMOOTH MUSCLE CELLS FROM GUINEA PIG MESENTERIC LYMPHATIC VESSELS

Abstract

The in vitro culture of lymphatic smooth muscle cells (SMCs) is a crucial step in studyingtheir function and involvement in disease. Yet there is no ef icient approach available so farbecause of the difficulties posed by the small size of most lymphatic vessels. We present a simpleyet efficient method for isolating and culturing SMCs of collecting lymphatic vessels from guineapig mesenteric tissue. In our approach, thin lymphatic vessels were digested twice from adventitiato media to release SMCs, which were then cultured by traditional methods. The lymphatic SMCswe cultured did not exhibit contact inhibition and demonstrated typical SMCs characteristicsunder light microscope, electron microscope and by immunohistochemical studies. This method isapplicable to the culturing of lymphatic SMCs from other organs and provides useful materialsfor physiological and pathological lymphatic studies.