Seeding of endothelial cells on the luminal surface of a sheet model of cold-stored (at 4-degrees C) sheep carotid arteries

Cold-stored arteries are biomaterials that potentially represent an abundant off-the-shelf source of vascular grafts for use in vascular surgery. One of the keys to re-establishing the antithrombogenic EC lining of cold-stored arterial grafts is to maximize the number of EC that attach following seeding. In this study, the cold-stored sheep carotid artery is used as a substrate to determine the conditions which maximize EC adherence following seeding. The effect of serum concentration, duration of seeding incubation, seeding density and period of cold storage on attachment of EC following seeding of 4-week cold-stored sheep carotid arteries (n=5 arteries), 8-week cold-stored sheep carotid arteries (n=5 arteries) and 12-week cold-stored sheep carotid arteries (n=5 arteries) was examined.Three experiments (serum concentration, time of incubation and seeding density) were conducted to determine the conditions that maximised the number of cultured sheep carotid artery EC that attached to cold-stored sheep carotid artery following seeding. A flat sheet model was used. Serum concentration ( , 10 , 20 and 30 ) in the seeding suspension did not have a significant effect on overall EC adherence on 4-, 8- and 12-week cold-...