ISSN:
0021-9541
Keywords:
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
A spontaneous tube-forming clone of rat cerebral resistance-vessel endothelium was characterized in long-term serial culture. In this study, a clone, RV-150 ECT, of cerebral resistance vessel endothelial cells in long-term culture has been shown to have a subpopulation of γ-GTP positive cells that are present in all cultures regardless of confluency status or tube-forming stages. In pre-confluent and confluent cultures, the γ-GTP positive cells are few in number, stain weakly, and are randomly distributed in the monolayers. In monolayer post-confluent cultures, γ-GTP positive cells increase in number, stain strongly, and begin to show signs of non-random distributions. In early post-confluent cultures that have become a mixture of monolayer and multilayer cells, there is a further increase in γ-GTP positive cells which begin to form distinct groupings. In mid post-confluent fultures, the multilayered areas of the culture have begun clustering to form clear multicellular aggregates. The γ-GTP positive cells at this stage are reduced in number and are predominately associated with the cell clusters. In late postconfluent cultures, the multicellular clusters develop clear cell cords between/among the clusters. At this stage the γ-GTP positive cells are associated exclusively with cell clustters. With cord development, the γ-GTP positive cells are associated with bothe clusters and cords, and are reduced in number apparently because of selective degeneration of these cells. The results of this study demonstrate that a phenotypically distinct subpopulation of endothelial cells exhibits characteristic features of the blood-brain barrier, namely γ-GTP. The ability of these cells to express this property in long-term serial culture suggests that this may represent a useful in vitro model to study the growth and differentiation of bloodbrain barrier vessels. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Additional Material:
4 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcp.1041560312
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