Experimental system for ex vivo measurement of murine aortic stiffness.

While vascular stiffness is universally studied using pulse wave velocity, this method overestimates the stiffness of small calibre blood vessels. We have developed and rigorously validated an ex vivo system for measuring stiffness of the mouse aorta. The system consists of a temperature-controlled tissue bath, a pressurization loop and a helium-neon laser micrometer. We harvested thoracic aortas from 8 (n = 56), 11 (n = 6) and 14 (n = 6) week male C57BL/6J mice, mounted them within a tissue chamber and applied an intraluminal pressure waveform while measuring mid vessel outer diameter. Vessel stiffness (E(p), mmHg) was calculated from the pressure-diameter response. Vessels were then stained for endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, elastin fibres and collagen. The data indicate highly reproducible stiffness measurements in 8 week mice (E(p) = 602.4 +/- 160.2; p = 0.934), age-related stiffening between 11 and 14 week mice (11 week E(p) = 646.9 +/- 62.4, 14 week E(p) = 795.4 +/- 87.5, p = 0.008), and a morphologically intact vessel wall. These results represent the first ex vivo measurements of murine aortic stiffness and illustrate that our methods are feasible and reliable. Since we demonstrate that the system is sensitive to age-related stiffening and does not damage the vessel, this approach is useful for investigating the pathophysiology of vascular disease from biomechanical and histological perspectives.

Cytochemical study of the distribution of adenosine triphosphatase in the pancreas of the dog.

Dog pancreatic tissue, incubated in a modified Wachstein-Meisel medium, showed two different adenosine triphosphatase activities. One of them is located at the apical border of the cells lining the intralobular ducts and of the centroacinar cells and is stimulated by HCO3-, depressed by SCN- and OCN- and completely abolished by CN-. The other is located at the intracellular clefts of the epithelium lining the interlobular ducts and is stimulated by Mg++. These findings correlate well with the results of incubation of homogenates of fresh and fixed tissues. Their significance with respect to the role of different segments of the duct system in the formation of the pancreatic juice is discussed.