The potential unreliability of indium 111 oxine labeling in studies of endothelial cell kinetics

The current widespread use of indium 111 oxine for labeling endothelial cells to study their interaction with various bioprosthetic flow surfaces presupposes a high retention of the radioisotope within the cell and a lack of significant adherence of any marker released from the cell to the surface under study. We measured the loss of indium 111 from freshly harvested, canine, venous endothelial cells, and their viability in cell culture, for varying intervals up to 24 hours. At prescribed intervals, aliquots of the radiolabeled endothelial cell suspension were centrifuged, and the supernatant was separated from the cell pellet. The relative radioactivity of each was measured in a gamma well counter and the spontaneous loss of marker from the endothelial cells was calculated. Spontaneous loss of indium 111 was 7.8% +/- 1.9% at 1 hour and 47.6% +/- 1.8% at 24 hours. Loss of activity was virtually constant between 14 and 24 hours. Endothelial cell viability was 80% at 24 hours. We next studied the in vitro affinity of indium 111 oxine and indium 111 transferrin for untreated expanded polytetrafluoroethylene vascular grafts and for similar grafts treated with two surfactants commonly used to increase the "wetability" of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene, a nonionic sufectant (Nonidet) and tridodecylmethylammonium chloride, and with two glycoproteins, fibronectin and basement membrane gel. A minimum of three graft segments were studied in each group. The affinity of graft material for indium 111, in both its oxine and transferrin complex, was significantly increased by treating the graft with a wetting agent, and it was further increased by the addition of a glycoprotein.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)