Human neonatal and adult vascular smooth muscle cells in culture

Neonatal vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) in culture have been demonstrated to be quite different from adult SMC and to be similar to intimal SMC in animal models. To characterize human neonatal vascular SMC in culture, cultures of arterial SMC were prepared by an explant method from the subclavian arteries of autopsied patients (10 adults and 6 neonates). The morphology and growth characteristics of these cells were compared. All cells were positively immunostained with HHF 35, a monoclonal antibody specific for muscle actin. Electron microscopically, both adult and neonatal SMC were of synthetic phenotype. SMC from neonates had a short population doubling time (PDT, 28.6 +/- 7.5 hr) and high saturation density (SD, 37.5 +/- 11.9 x 10(4) cells/cm2). They did not show hill and valley growth patterns. Among the SMC cultured from adult media, two subtypes were distinguished, based on their growth characteristics. Classical adult SMC (7 of 10 cases) grew in hill and valley patterns with long PDT and low SD values (61.7 +/- 28.8 hr, 6.5 +/- 1.9 x 10(4) cells/cm2, respectively). The second subtype (3 of 10 cases), neonatal-type adult SMC, had PDT and SD values (22.9 +/- 4.0 hr, 31.3 +/- 14.7 x 10(4) cells/cm2, respectively) similar to those of neonatal SMC. Intimal SMC became senescent in early phases of subculture. To test for the possible participation of autocrine growth factors in the heterogeneity of the growth patterns, Northern blot analysis was conducted for PDGF-A, TGF-beta, c-myc, and c-fos mRNA in three types of SMC. There was no significant difference in these mRNA levels between the SMC. We demonstrated that human neonatal vascular SMC in culture are quite different in their growth characteristics from classical adult SMC in culture and that neonatal-type SMC can be isolated from adult media.