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Method Article

Porcine Aortic Endothelial Cell (pAEC) Isolation: An Enzyme-based Method to Isolate Endothelial Cells from Harvested Porcine Abdominal Aorta

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July 8th, 2025

In This Article

Abstract

Source: Zhao, Y. et al. Isolation and Culture of Primary Aortic Endothelial Cells from Miniature Pigs. J. Vis. Exp. (2019)

In this video, we demonstrate the isolation of endothelial cells from the abdominal aorta of a pig model using one-step collagenase digestion. The endothelial cells can be cultured for further downstream applications.

Protocol

All procedures involving animal models have been reviewed by the local institutional animal care committee and the JoVE veterinary review board.

1. Isolation of Porcine Aortic Endothelial Cells

  1. Under aseptic conditions, remove the pig aorta from the washing buffer, and place it on a 150 mm Petri dish (Figure 1A).
  2. Gently cut off the two ends of the aorta and excise excess tissue around aorta with sterile forceps and scissors again (Figure 1B). Wash the outside and inside of the aorta (over the culture dish at room temperature) with 20−50 mL of washing buffer: 1x PBS solution (pH 7....

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Results

Tissue engineering process, scaffold preparation, cell seeding, bioreactor setup; experiment sequence.
Figure 1: Porcine aorta digestion and pAECs isolation. (A) The aorta is placed in a 150 mm Petri dish with cold washing buffer. (B) Photograph of por.......

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Disclosures

No conflicts of interest declared.

Materials

List of materials used in this article
NameCompanyCatalog NumberComments
Cell scraperCorning3010#
Collagenase IVSigma-AldrichC5138#-1G
DMEMLife Technologies11965118#
Falcon 100mm Cell Culture DishCorning353003#
Petri Dishes (150 x 15 mm)Biologixgroup66-1515#
ForcepsShangHai medical instruments Co.,Ltd.China
Rectangular Canted Neck Cell Culture Flask with Vent Cap (T25)Corning3289#
ScissorsShangHai medical instruments Co.,Ltd.China
Serological Transfer Pipettes (10ml)JET BiofilGSP010010#
Sterile Pasteur PipetteGeneBrickGY0025#
Surgical sutureShanghai Pudong Jinhuan Medical Supplies Co., Ltd5-0#
20 x PBS solution (pH 7.4,Nuclease free)Sangon BiotechB540627#
Penicillin/Streptomycin Life Technologies 15070063#

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