Complete cell killing by applying high hydrostatic pressure for acellular vascular graft preparation

Pressure treatment has been developed in tissue engineering application. Although the tissue scaffold prepared by a ultrahydrostatic pressure treatment has been reported, an excessive pressure has a potential to disrupt a structure of extracellular matrix through protein denaturation. It is important to understand the suitable low-pressure condition and mechanisms for cell killing. In this study, cellular morphology, mitochondria activity, and membrane permeability of mammalian cells with various pressure treatments were investigated with in vitro models. When the cells were treated with a pressure of 100 MPa for 10 min, cell morphology and adherence were the same as an untreated cells. Dehydrogenase activity in mitochondria was almost the same as untreated cells. On the other hand, when the cells were treated with the pressure of more than 200 MPa, the cells did not adhere, and the dehydrogenase activity was completely suppressed. However, green fluorescence was observed in the live/dead staining images, and the cells were completely stained as red after above 500 MPa. That is, membrane permeability was disturbed with the pressure treatment of above 500 MPa. These results indicated that the pressure of 200 MPa for 10 min was enough to induce cell killing through inactivation of mitochondria activity.