Abstract
This chapter describes protocols developed in our laboratory to prepare and analyze angiogenic cultures of rat aorta. Rings of rat aorta cultured in collagen gels produce neovessel outgrowths which reproduce ex vivo key steps of the angiogenic process including endothelial migration, proliferation, proteolytic digestion of the extracellular matrix, capillary tube formation, pericyte recruitment, and vascular regression. The angiogenic response of aortic explants can be stimulated with growth factors or inhibited with anti-angiogenic molecules. Aortic ring cultures can also be used to study tumor angiogenesis. Protocols outlined in this chapter describe how this assay can be modified to investigate the angiogenic activity of cancer cells.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by a Merit Review Award from the US Department of Veterans Affairs Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service. The contents do not represent the views of the US Department of Veteran Affairs or the US Government. We gratefully acknowledge the support of a grant-in-aid from the American Heart Association and Dr. B. Knudsen, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA for providing the PC3 cells.
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Aplin, A.C., Nicosia, R.F. (2016). The Aortic Ring Assay and Its Use for the Study of Tumor Angiogenesis. In: Ribatti, D. (eds) Tumor Angiogenesis Assays. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1464. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3999-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3999-2_6
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