Evaluation of endothelial cell culture as a model system of vascular ageing
Open accessAbstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relevance of long-term endothelial cell culture as a model system of vascular ageing. Micro- and macrovascular endothelial cells were serially passaged until replicative senescence and their ability to form tube-like structures when cultured on Matrigel was assessed throughout their lifespan. For both cell types low passage cultures adopted a homogeneous cobblestone morphology, while senescent cultures were extremely heterogeneous. Furthermore, both cell types showed a reduction in tube formation ability with in vitro ageing, which is in accordance with the reduction in angiogenic potential observed with ageing in vivo. Examination of senescence associated β-galactosidase activity revealed an increased activity in cells forming tubes as compared to cells cultured on plastic, which could be attributed to an increased lysosomal content of cells undergoing tube formation. As this increased senescence associated β-galactosidase activity was unrelated to the replicative age of the cells, senescence associated β-galactosidase activity may not be a relevant senescence marker for differentiating endothelial cells. The age-related reduction in tube formation ability suggested that long-term culture of endothelial cells may be a valid model system of vascular ageing, which makes it an ideal platform for high throughput screening of compounds influencing angiogenesis.
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The study used a well-established endothelial aging model by generating hiPSCs from five independent human donors and differentiating them into endothelial cells.
“we used a well-established model for endothelial aging57,58 by generating human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from fibroblasts obtained from five independent human donors59 and subsequently differentiated them into endothelial cells (hiPSC-ECs)60.”
From An inflammatory aging clock (iAge) based on deep learning tracks multimorbidity, immunosenescence, frailty and cardiovascular aging (2021) · cites this paper as [57]
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FLRT2 plays a critical role in endothelial cell senescence and vascular agingPreprint
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- Authors
- Boisen, L., Drasbek, K. R., Pedersen, A. S., & Kristensen, P.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Kristensen, Peter
- Venue
- Experimental Gerontology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-10
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 779-787
- ISSN
- 0531-5565 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2008148123
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 0.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hal.science
- Licence
- Locations
- Experimental Gerontology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Angiogenesis and VEGF in Cancer
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Nitric Oxide and Endothelin Effects
- Keywords
- vascular aging, endothelial cells, replicative senescence, senescence-associated β-galactosidase, tube formation, angiogenesis, microvascular endothelial cells, macrovascular endothelial cells, senescence markers, high-throughput screening
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aging, beta-Galactosidase, Cell Differentiation, Cell Division, Cells, Cultured, DNA Damage, Humans, Lysosomes, Models, Biological, Biomarkers, Cellular Senescence, Dermis, Endothelial Cells, Microvessels
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