An in vitro flow chamber as model to investigate the haemostatic function of fresh endothelial cells

Abstract

Cultured human umbilical cord endothelial cells are mostly used to study the response of endothelium to various stimuli. The effect of the culture process on cell function is however, not known and the function of endothelial cells from different anatomical loci differs. In view of this we developed a flow chamber to study the function of fresh endothelium. The flow chamber was designed to accommodate a five cm piece of baboon aorta in a closed circuit where six hours of perfusion of the aorta with Ringer’s lactate/dextrose buffer at 37 °C was maintained by a peristaltic pump.