Effect of lipoprotein on in vitro synthesis of DNA in aortic tissue.

Abstract

Several factors such as lipoproteins,1,2 platelets3 and insulin4 have been shown to stimulate the proliferation of aortic smooth muscle cells in culture in the presence of serum or serum derivatives. Using an explant system from swine thoracic aorta we have studied the effect of lipoproteins on the synthesis of DNA. Our system, on which we have previously reported in detail,5 exhibits cell proliferation, cell death and a peripheral growth of smooth muscle cells which secrete collagen, elastic tissue and glycosaminoglycans and is well-suited as a model system for use in the study of the phenomenon characteristic of atherosclerosis. In addition, unlike cultures of smooth muscle cells which are both very time-consuming to obtain and which cannot be easily cultured in large numbers, our system has the advantage of having only a 9-day culture period and of allowing for the assay of large numbers of samples in quadruplicate.