Context of Use or Disease: Endothelial cells under flow

DOI: Science Signaling 2023

Platform: ibidi Pump System Quad and µ-Slides

Description: The platform is a pump system with parallel Fluidic Units for long-term cell culture under flow to mimic physiologic conditions. It allows the cultivation of human microvascular endothelial cells (e.g. HDMEC), human macrovascular endothelial cells (e.g. aortic, coronary artery, umbilical vein), induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived endothelial cells or mouse endothelial cells (lung, liver, heart). These cells are seeded on a range of coatings for 24 hours (e.g. fibronectin, collagen, laminin) in µ-Slides before exposure to defined laminar flow types (unidirectional, pulsatile, oscillatory flow). The system can be connected via female Luer adapters, with up to four parallel flow experiments, to be used with all cell culture incubators and inverted microscopes.

Fig. 1. A. Diagram showing the outline of the ibidi system connected to µ-Slide seeded with endothelial cells (ECs). B. Diagram of the ibidi system generating unidirectional laminar flow (LF; 20 dynes/cm²) or oscillatory flow (OF; ±5 dynes/cm²). C. Image of the ibidi system within an incubator at 37°C supplied with 5% CO₂.

Characterisation & Validation: Endothelial cells described above which were exposed to laminar flow (LF) show expression of shear stress-inducible atheroprotective genes such as KLF2 and KLF4. Endothelial cells exposed to oscillatory flow (OS) show limited expression of these genes and increased expression of inflammatory adhesion molecules such as ICAM1 and VCAM-1. Endothelial cells show modulation of the above markers after 24 hours of exposure to flow. We successfully exposed endothelial cells to flow continuously for up to 7 days. 

Ongoing Research: Investigation of the m.3243A>G mtDNA mutation in iPSC-derived endothelial cells in the context of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke like episodes (MELAS)

Research Team: Claudio Raimondi

Lead Contact: Claudio Raimondi

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