Isolation of embryonic ventricular endothelial cells

Cell culture has greatly enhanced our ability to assess individual populations of cells under myriad culture conditions. While immortalized cell lines offer significant advantages for their ease of use, these cell lines are unavailable for all potential cell types. By isolating primary cells from a specific region of interest, particularly from a transgenic mouse, more nuanced studies can be performed. The basic technique involves dissecting the organ or partial organ of interest (e.g. the heart or a specific region of the heart) and dissociating the organ to single cells. These cells are then incubated with magnetic beads conjugated to an antibody that recognizes the cell type of interest. The cells of interest can then be isolated with the use of a magnet, with a short trypsin incubation dissociating the cells from the beads. These isolated cells can then be cultured and analyzed as desired. This technique was originally designed for adult mouse organs but can be easily scaled down for use with embryonic organs, as demonstrated herein. Because our interest is in the developing coronary vasculature, we wanted to study this population of cells during specific embryonic stages. Thus, the original protocol had to be modified to be compatible with the small size of the embryonic ventricles and the low potential yield of endothelial cells at these developmental stages. Utilizing this scaled-down approach, we have assessed coronary plexus remodeling in transgenic embryonic ventricular endothelial cells.