Functional ex-vivo Imaging of Arterial Cellular Recruitment and Lipid Extravasation
Emiel van der Vorst,
Sanne Maas,
Almudena Ortega-Gomez,
Jeroen Hameleers,
Mariaelvy Bianchini,
Yaw Asare,
Oliver Soehnlein,
Yvonne Döring,
Christian Weber,
Remco Megens
Affiliations
Emiel van der Vorst
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Sanne Maas
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Almudena Ortega-Gomez
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Jeroen Hameleers
Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Mariaelvy Bianchini
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Yaw Asare
Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Oliver Soehnlein
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, GermanyDZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology (FyFa), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Yvonne Döring
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Christian Weber
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, GermanyCardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands, DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany
Remco Megens
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, GermanyCardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
The main purpose of this sophisticated and highly versatile method is to visualize and quantify structural vessel wall properties, cellular recruitment, and lipid/dextran extravasation under physiological conditions in living arteries. This will be of interest for a broad range of researchers within the field of inflammation, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and even the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, many researchers are using in vitro techniques to evaluate cellular recruitment, like transwell or flow chamber systems with cultured cells, with unclear physiological comparability. The here introduced method describes in detail the use of a sophisticated and flexible method to study arterial wall properties and leukocyte recruitment in fresh and viable murine carotid arteries ex vivo under arterial flow conditions. This model mimics the in vivo situation and allows the use of cells and arteries isolated from two different donors (for example, wildtype vs. specific knockouts) to be combined into one experiment,thereby providing information on both leukocyte and/or endothelial cell properties of both donors. As such, this model can be considered an alternative for the complicated and invasive in vivo studies, such as parabiotic experiments.