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Updated: Jul 14, 2026
Construction of a Human Aorta Smooth Muscle Cell Organ-On-A-Chip Model for Recapitulating Biomechanical Strain in the Aortic Wall
Published on: July 6, 2022
Improved arterial wall model by coculturing vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells
Koichi Niwa1, Jiro Sakai, Toshihiro Watanabe
1Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Bioindustry, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 196 Yasaka, Abashiri, Hokkaido 099-2493, Japan. k3niwa@bioindustry.nodai.ac.jp
Abstract:
We have constructed an in vitro arterial wall model by coculturing bovine arterial endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs). When ECs were seeded directly over SMCs and cocultured in an ordinary culture medium, ECs grew sparsely and did not form a confluent monolayer. Addition of ascorbic acid to the culture medium at concentrations greater than 50 mug/ml increased the production of type IV collagen by the SMCs, and ECs formed a confluent monolayer covering the entire surface of SMCs. Histological studies showed that the thickness of the cell layer composed of ECs and SMCs increased with increasing duration of coculture. This arterial wall model, prepared by our method, may serve as a simple and good in vitro model to study the effects of factors such as biological chemicals and shear stress on cell proliferation and other physiological functions of arterial walls.
