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.
O'Rourke, C., Shelton, G., Hutcheson, J. D., Burke, M. F., Martyn, T., Thayer, T. E., Shakartzi, H. R., Buswell, M. D., Tainsh, R. E., Yu, B., Bagchi, A., Rhee, D. K., Wu, C., Derwall, M., Buys, E. S., Yu, P. B., Bloch, K. D., Aikawa, E., Bloch, D. B., Malhotra, R. Calcification of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells and Imaging of Aortic Calcification and Inflammation. J. Vis. Exp. (111), e54017, doi:10.3791/54017 (2016).