Study the restenosis after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty(PTCA) in the organ culture system

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty(PTCA) has become increasingly important in the therapy of coronary artery disease. However, the high restenosis occurrence of 20% similar to 30% in patients limits the applications of this method, but the pathogenesis of restenosis has not yet been fully understood. In this paper, static organ culture system was set up to study the process of restenosis formation after PTCA. The common carotid arteries of atherosclerotic rabbits after PTCA were cultured in the artery organ-culture system and maintained in culture for 7 days. After 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d and 7d, MTT-test showed that the activity of vessels in the organ culture system unchanged. Pathology and histological technic were applied to check the intimal morphology especially the endothelial denudation and intimal hyperplasia. The concentration of chemical cytokines NO releasing in the process of restenosis were measured The results showed the method of static organ culture could be successfully applied to keep the activity of culture arteries and study the process of restenosis formation after PTCA. The endothelial denudation and inflammatory cytokines releasing had intimately relationship with the restenosis after PTCA.