Abstract
Human umbilical vein endothelial cells have been used for the production of functional endothelial cell lines. Electroporation with the gene encoding simian virus 40 large tumour antigen under the control of the Rous sarcoma virus long terminal repeat or the human cytomegalovirus promoter has produced the cell lines, DG-RSV-LT-2 and DG-CMV-LT-4. Both cell lines have distinct cobblestone morphology, maintain organisational ability on Matrigel, express von Willebrand factor and require no supplementary growth factor apart from serum. They also retain the ability to express the endothelial markers Cadherin-5 and CD31 and regulate the expression of the adhesins intercellular adhesion molecule-1, E-Selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 in response to cytokine stimulation. The techniques described for the generation of these human umbilical vein endothelial cell lines could be used to develop alternative cell lines derived from the microvascular endothelium.