To begin, place an anesthetized mouse on the operating table. Using sterile ophthalmic scissors and forceps, open the thoracic and abdominal cavities. This will expose the heart and the intestines.
Carefully dissect the mesenteric arteries and the aorta separately. Rinse the mesenteric arteries in PBS and transfer them to a 10-centimeter Petri dish containing 1%penicillin-streptomycin-amphotericin B solution. Similarly, rinse the aorta and transfer it to another Petri dish containing the same solution.
Quickly remove all the fat around the aorta and the mesenteric arteries. After rinsing twice, place the arteries under a stereo microscope in a tissue culture hood. Carefully make a longitudinal cut along the arteries.
Then using fine forceps, peel off the outer layer of the aorta and the first branch of the mesenteric arteries. Place the outer layer in a 3.5 centimeter Petri dish containing 0.1 to 0.2 milliliters of culture medium, and chop it into tiny pieces of about one cubic millimeter. Transfer the tissue pieces into a gelatin-coated T-25 flask.
Place the flask vertically in an incubator at 37 degree Celsius with 5%carbon dioxide. After three hours, add five milliliters of DMEM high glucose growth medium to the flask to submerge all the tissue blocks.
