Preservation of vascular function in rat mesenteric resistance arteries following cold storage, studied by small vessel myography

Abstract

1 The use of isolated blood vessels to investigate the physiological and pharmacological control of the vasculature is limited by the requirement to use freshly isolated vessels. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine whether vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cell function could be preserved in resistance arteries by storing them in physiological salt solution (PSS) at 48C. 2 Third order mesenteric resistance arteries (mean internal diameter 237+6 mm) were dissected from the mesenteric bed of male Cob-Wistar rats. The vessel segments were mounted in a small vessel myograph for measurement of isometric tension, and equilibrated at their optimum resting force. were obtained in arteries, immediately after dissection (day 0) and following one to four days storage (day 1 ± day 4). 3 All arteries produced concentration-dependent contractions in response to each of the vasoconstrictors. There were no signi®cant dierences in the magnitude or sensitivity (pD 2 ) of the vasoconstrictor responses between fresh and stored vessels. 4 Arteries precontracted with NA to approximately 80% of the maximum response, relaxed in a concentration-dependent manner in response to ACh and SIN-1. Vessel storage for up to three days resulted in no change in response to ACh or SIN-1. 5 Vessels analysed after four days of storage demonstrated a signi®cant increase in sensitivity to ACh and SIN-1 (7logIC 50 (M) values; ACh; day 0, 7.46+0.13 vs day 4, 7.97+0.11, P50.01 and SIN-1; day 0, 4.87+0.10 vs day 4, 5.52+0.08, P50.01). There was also a signi®cant increase in the maximum relaxant response to ACh after four days of storage (% relaxation; day 0, 92.65+2.84 vs day 4, 100.36+0.36, P50.05). 6 These results demonstrate that small resistance arteries remain viable if stored in PSS at 48C for up to four days, with no loss in endothelial cell function. The altered sensitivity to the vasodilators on day 4 suggests that vessels should only be stored for up to three days following dissection for analysis of functional responses.

Contractile response of isolated human hepatic arteries to α-adrenoceptor agonists is not impaired in patients with cirrhosis

“…It was also anticipated that preservation in UW solution would not alter the contractile function of donor hepatic arteries. We have shown that the function of rat mesenteric arteries is unaltered after 3 days in a physiological salt solution [19] and UW solution has been shown to preserve the contractile function of porcine [20] and human [18] hepatic arteries. Our results confirmed that the comparison of responses in donor (stored in UW solution) and recipient (removed immediately from the explanted liver) hepatic arteries was valid in the present study.…”

Endothelin B Receptors on Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells of the Human Umbilical Vein Mediate Vasoconstriction

“…Cord segments were cut at least 10 cm from the infants and were placed into a modified Krebs solution (Na + 151 m M , K ) and stored at 4 ° C for less than 48 h until the experiments. Up to 3 days of storage of blood vessels under these conditions did not affect vessel function [15] .…”

Nitric oxide and endothelin in oxygen-dependent regulation of vascular tone of human umbilical vein

“…The study was approved by the local ethics committee. Within the first minutes of birth, cord segments were cut at least 10 cm from the infants, because the distal part of the human umbilical vein is thought to be definitely devoid of nerves (4,21 (14). At the end of our experiments, KCl was added to a final concentration of 0.05 M to test the viability of the preparations.…”