[Ultrastructural study of secondary cultures of rat aorta. Cellular aspects]

Cells obtained from the media and intima of ten days rat aorta, after enzymatic dissociation, were grown in subculture for up to three months. Electron microscopic observations demonstrate that these cells maintained the morphology of smooth muscle cells at all phases of their growth in subculture and kept their ability to synthesize and secrete intracellular proteins with better enzymatic features than the cells obtained by proliferation at the periphery of an explant.