[Morphologic and functional characterization of human aortic endothelium. III. Growth in culture and colony formation at low seeding density].

In human aortic endothelial cell (HAEC) cultures, obtained separately from aortic zones of low (LP) and high (HP) probability of atherosclerosis, proliferative characteristics of cells and HAEC ability to form colonies at clonal seeding density were studied. It has been found that the population doubling time is significantly higher in endothelial cell (EC) cultures from HP-zones, compared to that in cultures from LP-zones of the same vessels. In cultures from both LP- and HP-zones only a few percent of EC had a proliferative potential enough to form cell colonies. The number of formed colonies was always lower in EC cultures from HP-zones, and decreased depending on atherosclerotic lesions and cell donor age. The obtained data suggest that the decline of EC proliferative potential, mostly in HP-zones (even without visible signs of atherosclerotic lesions) is due to a decrease in the number of cells with a high mitotic activity, i.e. "cambial" cells.