A Porcine Model for Adipose Tissue-Derived Endothelial Cell Transplantation

The transplantation of endothelial cells represents a technology which has been suggested for applications ranging from improvement in function of implanted vascular devices to genetic therapy. The use of microvascular endothelial cell transplantation has seen increased use both in animal studies as well as clinical use. This report describes our techniques for the isolation and establishment of initial cultures of microvascular endothelial cells derived from porcine fat. A variety of anatomic sites within the pig were evaluated to determine the appropriateness of different sources of fat for endothelial cell isolation. The properitoneal fat was determined to be optimal due to the predominance of endothelium in this tissue and the ease of isolation of microvascular endothelium following collagenase digestion. The study of endothelial cell transplantation in the porcine model is now possible using the methods described for adipose tissue-derived microvessel endothelial cell isolation.