title: The position- and lymphatic lumen-controlled tissue chambers to study live lymphatic vessels and surrounding tissues ex vivo.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Until now, there has been no tool available to provide lymphatic researchers the ability to perform experiments in tissue explants containing lymphatic vessels under tissue position- and lymphatic lumen-controlled conditions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this article we provide technical details and description of the method of using the newly developed and implemented the position- and lymphatic lumen-controlled tissue chambers to study live lymphatic vessels and surrounding tissues ex vivo. In this study, we, for the first time, performed detailed comparative analysis of the contractile and pumping activity of rat mesenteric lymphatic vessels (MLVs) situated within tissue explants mounted in new tissue chambers and isolated, cannulated, and pressurized rat MLVs maintained in isolated vessel setups. We found no significant differences of the effects of both transmural pressure- and wall shear stress sensitivities of MLVs in tissue chambers and isolated MLVs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that this new experimental tool, a position- and lymphatic lumen-controlled tissue chamber, allows precise investigation of lymphatic function of MLVs interacting with elements of the tissue microenvironment. This method provides an important new set of experimental tools to investigate lymphatic function.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Medical Physiology, College of Medicine, Texas A&M University Health Science Center , Temple, Texas.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maejima
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Bridenbaugh
authors.forename: Walter E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Cromer
authors.forename: Anatoliy A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Gashev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D042601:Lymphatic Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley