Establishment of a new conditionally immortalized human skeletal muscle microvascular endothelial cell line

In skeletal muscle, the capillaries have tight junctions (TJs) that are structurally similar to those in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-nerve barrier (BNB). Although many findings have been clarified in the territory of BBB and BNB, few have so far examined the TJs of capillaries in the skeletal muscle. In addition, no in vitro human skeletal muscle microvasculature models have been reported thus far. We newly established a new human skeletal muscle microvascular endothelial cell (HSMMEC) line. HSMMECs were isolated from human skeletal muscle and were infected with retroviruses harboring temperature-sensitive SV40 T antigen and telomerase genes. This cell line, termed TSM15, showed a spindle fiber-shaped morphology, an immunoreactivity to anti-factor VIII and anti-VE-cadherin antibodies, and a temperature-sensitive growth. TSM15 cells grew stably for more than 40 passages when they were cultured at 33°C, thereby retaining their spindle fiber-shaped morphology and contact inhibition at confluence. The cells expressed tight junctional molecules such as claudin-5, occludin, and zonula occludens-1, as well as transporters such as a glucose transporter 1. The transendothelial electrical resistance of TSM15 was as high as those of the human brain microvascular endothelial cell line. This novel cell line might facilitate the analyses of the pathophysiology of inflammatory myopathy, such as dermatomyositis, and can improve our understanding of the physiological and biochemical properties of the microvasculature in human skeletal muscle.