Abstract
We studied the influences of short-term (2-week) cholesterol feeding on the proliferative activity of enzyme-dispersed rabbit aortic smooth muscle cells in primary culture. The cells were cultured in Eagle's minimum essential medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum. Marked subendothelial edema was observed in the aortas of cholesterol-fed rabbits by pathological examination. The enzyme-dispersed smooth muscle cells from control rabbits had a lag phase of 4-5 days before they started to proliferate. On the other hand, cells from cholesterol-fed rabbits started to divide 2-3 days after seeding and tended to grow to higher densities than controls.
Hyperlipidemic serum from cholesterol-fed rabbits slightly enhanced the proliferation of subcultured smooth muscle cells compared to normolipidemic serum when the serum was added at the concentration of 5% in the medium, but rather suppressed it when added at 10 or 20 concentration.
Our results indicate that the enzyme-dispersed smooth muscle cells in primary culture from cholesterol-fed rabbits have greater proliferative activity independent on the presence of hyperlipidemic serum and that the cells themselves have acquired increased proliferative abilities.
