Calcification of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells and Imaging of Aortic Calcification and InflammationCaitlin O'Rourke *1, Georgia Shelton *1,2, Joshua D. Hutcheson 3,4, Megan F. Burke 2, Trejeeve Martyn 1, Timothy E. Thayer 2, Hannah R. Shakartzi 1, Mary D. Buswell 1, Robert E. Tainsh 1, Binglan Yu 1,4, Aranya Bagchi 1,4, David K. Rhee 2,4, Connie Wu 1,2,4, Matthias Derwall 5, Emmanuel S. Buys 1,4, Paul B. Yu 3,4, Kenneth D. Bloch 1,2,4, Elena Aikawa 3,4, Donald B. Bloch 1,5,6, Rajeev Malhotra 2,4
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, 3Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 4Harvard Medical School, 5Department of Anesthesiology, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, RWTH Aachen University, 6Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases and the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology of the Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
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.
