title: In-depth evaluation of commercially available human vascular smooth muscle cells phenotype: Implications for vascular tissue engineering.
abstract: In vitro research on vascular tissue engineering has extensively used isolated primary human or animal smooth muscle cells (SMC). Research programs that lack such facilities tend towards commercially available primary cells sources. Here, we aim to evaluate the capacity of commercially available human SMC to maintain their contractile phenotype, and determine if dedifferentiation towards the synthetic phenotype occurs in response to conventional cell culture and passaging without any external biochemical or mechanical stimuli. Lower passage SMC adopted a contractile phenotype marked by a relatively slower proliferation rate, higher expression of proteins of the contractile apparatus and smoothelin, elongated morphology, and reduced deposition of collagen types I and III. As the passage number increased, migratory capacity was enhanced, average cell speed, total distance and net distance travelled increased up to passage 8. Through the various assays, corroborative evidence pinpoints SMC at passage 7 as the transition point between the contractile and synthetic phenotypes, while passage 8 distinctly and consistently exhibited characteristics of synthetic phenotype. This knowledge is particularly useful in selecting SMC of appropriate passage number for the target vascular tissue engineering application, for example, a homeostatic vascular graft for blood vessel replacement versus recreating atherosclerotic blood vessel model in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: sara.timraz@kustar.ac.ae.
authors.forename: Sara B H
authors.initials: SBH
authors.lastname: Timraz
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Sciences, Khalifa University, PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: ilyas.farhat@outlook.com.
authors.forename: Ilyas A H
authors.initials: IAH
authors.lastname: Farhat
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: ghada.alhussein@kustar.ac.ae.
authors.forename: Ghada
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alhussein
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. Electronic address: nicolas.christoforou@kustar.ac.ae.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Christoforou
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: jeremy.teo@kustar.ac.ae.
authors.forename: Jeremy C M
authors.initials: JCM
authors.lastname: Teo
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D048430:Cell Shape; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000166:cytology*; D032389:Myocytes, Smooth Muscle / Q000166:cytology; D010641:Phenotype; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Phenotype; Phenotypic modulation; Smooth muscle cell; Tissue engineering