In vivo techniques and analysis

When scientists aim to understand the mechanism of action of a drug on the vascular system, they will seek the ultimate experiment in a chosen test system stripped of its layers of complex interactions to maximize analytical power and minimize external influences. With such a controlled assay design, scientists may achieve some measure of analytical certainty that their vascular drug is behaving in a direct predictable manner. Such a bioassay system may be a smooth muscle cell membrane preparation, cell culture system, or isolated large or small artery mounted in a myograph or organ chamber. But in the end, these scientists will, theoretically at least, have to extrapolate their findings to the more integrated system of a vascular bed and ultimately the human circulation.