Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, RWTH Aachen University 1 article published in JoVE Medicine Calcification of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells and Imaging of Aortic Calcification and Inflammation Caitlin O'Rourke*1, Georgia Shelton*1,2, Joshua D. Hutcheson3,4, Megan F. Burke2, Trejeeve Martyn1, Timothy E. Thayer2, Hannah R. Shakartzi1, Mary D. Buswell1, Robert E. Tainsh1, Binglan Yu1,4, Aranya Bagchi1,4, David K. Rhee2,4, Connie Wu1,2,4, Matthias Derwall5, Emmanuel S. Buys1,4, Paul B. Yu3,4, Kenneth D. Bloch1,2,4, Elena Aikawa3,4, Donald B. Bloch1,5,6, Rajeev Malhotra2,4 1Anesthesia Center for Critical Care Research of the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 2Cardiovascular Research Center and Cardiology Division of the Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 3 Vascular calcification is an important predictor of and contributor to human cardiovascular disease. This protocol describes methods for inducing calcification of cultured primary vascular smooth muscle cells and for quantifying calcification and macrophage burden in animal aortas using near-infrared fluorescence imaging.
