Pharmacological studies on frozen stored canine saphenous veins and basilar arteries

Canine saphenous veins were either placed in Krebs-Henseleit solution and stored for 24 h at +4 degrees C, or immersed in FCS (fetal calf serum) containing 1.8 mol/l DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide), slowly frozen to -70 degrees C and stored for 4 weeks at -70 degrees C or -190 degrees C. Canine basilar arteries were either stored in Krebs-Henseleit solution for 24 h at +4 degrees C or slowly frozen and stored for 3 months in FCS plus 1.8 mol/l DMSO at -70 degrees C. Subsequent pharmacological investigations revealed a considerable attenuation of the contractile force of frozen-stored vessels but the evidence suggests that there may be a very good preservation of the main biochemical properties, such as monoamine oxidase activity, endogenous prostaglandin synthesis and uptake1 mechanisms in veins stored at -190 degrees C and there is an excellent correlation of the pD2 values for various tryptamine derivatives on canine basilar arteries stored for 3 months at -70 degrees C with those calculated on fresh preparations. It is concluded that freezing isolated blood vessels may be considered an effective means of preserving and storing vascular tissues for pharmacological investigations.