Morphological characterization of glomerular endothelial cells cultured on a basement membrane matrix

We characterized the morphological expression of glomerular endothelial cells (GEC) cultured on a basement membrane matrix, Matrigel. GEC cultured on this matrix formed abundant networks of branching and anastomosing cords of cells, and formed capillary-like structures with a lumen and interdigitating junctional processes. In contrast, GEC cultured on fibronectin-coated dishes had elongated spindle shapes without any interdigitating junctional processes. These findings suggest that the culture system with Matrigel is useful for inducing and maintaining characteristics close to in vivo GEC.