[Vascular smooth muscle cells from human umbilical artery undergo osteoblast differentiation and calcification in...

To research if the vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from human umbilical artery undergo osteoblast differentiation spontaneously in vitro. The growth curve of vascular smooth muscle cells from human umbilical artery was obtained by MTT method. The course of multicell nodule formation spontaneously by VSMCs was observed morphologically. The apoptosis of VSMCs in the nodules was detected by Hoechst 33258 and TUNEL methods respectively. The expression of alkaline phosphotase in the nodules was detected by immunohistochemical method. And the calcification was studied with transmission electron microscope and by alizarin red S respectively. We found that the umbilical artery smooth muscle cells confluenced after 7 days of passage and exhibited typical "hill and valley" pattern under light microscope. The cells grew into aggregation and formed nodules at the "hill" region with culture-time prolongation. After 4-5 weeks culture, these nodules built up and calcified spontaneously. We also found alkaline phosphotase expression and apoptosis of VSMCs in these nodules at the same time. We conclude that the vascular smooth muscle cells from human umbilical artery just like from aortic artery can undergo osteoblast differentiation spontaneously in vitro, and apoptosis participate this procedure probably.