ESTABLISHMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF IMMORTALIZED HUMAN CORONARY ENDOTHELIAL-CELLS

We established an immortalized cell line from endothelial cells derive d from a human coronary artery, isolated at autopsy from 76-year-old m ale, by transfecting the cells with origin-minus simian virus 40 DNA. These cells showed SV40 T antigen in the nuclei and Ulex europaeus I a gglutinin and factor VIII-related antigen, as endothelial cell markers , in their cytoplasm. This cell line synthesized prostacyclin, tissue- type plasminogen activator (tPA), and plasminogen activator inhibitor- 1 (PAI-1) as well as produced the preform of matrix metalloproteinase 1, which was activated by cultivating the cells with plasminogen. Thes e findings reveal that this immortalized endothelial cell line retains characteristics of human coronary endothelial cells, indicating that this cell line is useful for studying atherogenesis of the coronary ar tery.