Fresh Human Umbilical Vein for Acute Animal Experiments

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fresh Human Umbilical Vein for Acute Animal Experiments

AU - Schneiderman, J.

AU - Papa, M. Z.

AU - Adar, R.

N1 - Funding Information: Schneiderman J. Department of General and Vascular Surgery, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Tel-Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, Israel Papa M.Z. Department of General and Vascular Surgery, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Tel-Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, Israel Adar R. Department of General and Vascular Surgery, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Tel-Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, Israel 09 1978 12 5 306 307 sagemeta-type Journal Article search-text 306 Fresh Human Umbilical Vein for Acute Animal Experiments SAGE Publications, Inc.1978DOI: 10.1177/153857447801200503 J. Schneiderman Department of General and Vascular Surgery, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer Tel-Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, Israel M.Z. Papa Department of General and Vascular Surgery, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer Tel-Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, Israel R. Adar Department of General and Vascular Surgery, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer Tel-Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, Israel Supported by a grant from the Chief Scientist of Israel's Ministry of Health. TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL In animal experiments vascular grafts are sometimes required for certain hemodynamic measurements. Synthetic vascular substitutes are frequently used for this purpose, in spite of their high cost and the inconvenience of anastomosing them to the thin-walled vessels of small mammals. Other grafts used for this purpose are autogenous carotid arteries, the harvesting of which requires a lengthy dissection. We propose the use of fresh umbilical vein, from humans, as an effective vascular prosthetic graft for acute animal experiments, and we describe a simple way to prepare the implant. Human umbilical veins were used as vascular grafts in the past and were implanted in baboons by Dardik et al.1 Those implants were observed for patency and structure of their wall over a period of several weeks; they developed either ectatic changes or aneurysmatic dilatations along their course, and eventually all became thrombosed. The fresh umbilical vein obviously could not be used for chronic experiments because of its antigenicity, which would result in immunologic rejection, and because of the physical weakness of its wall. Dardik et al. later succeeded in removing the antigenic properties of the human umbilical vein tissue, and strengthening its wall, producing an almost ideal bioimplant for vascular surgery. For pure financial reasons, this new biologic prosthesis is rarely used in either acute or chronic animal experiments. Surprisingly, though, the fresh untreated umbilical vein has not yet been used in acute animal experiments. In the last few months we have carried out hemodynamic measurements with the femoro-femoral bypass in 6 dogs. Our bypass graft was an untreated umbilical vein of human origin. Each bypass graft was separated from the umbilical cord a short while before being implanted. The method of separation was as follows (Figure 1): The umbilical cord is washed and flushed out with saline to remove the blood from the cord vessels. A glass rod or a 21307 FIG. 1. (A). Inserting the glass rod into the vein. (B) Cutting along the dotted line to free the end of the vein. (C) Fixing the vein to the glass rod with a knot. (D) Stripping Wharton's jelly off the vein. catheter 3 to 4 mm in diameter is carefully inserted into the vein. One end of the umbilical vein is separated from the surrounding tissue by cutting around its circumference and in the longitudinal direction. The free end of the vein is then fixed to the glass rod with a tight knot. All the tissue surrounding the . vein is grasped with three hemostats and carefully pulled away from the glass rod, thus stripping the tissue from the vein. The complete procedure takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Our results with this graft were most satisfactory: (1) There is a virtually unlimited source of material. (2) Preparation of the graft is simple and rapid. (3) As a biologic material, it is most convenient to handle surgically. (4) The untreated umbilical vein has a slightly tortuosity to it, but not enough to disturb laminar flow. (5) The graft is valveless, and flows can be measured in both directions. (6) Electromagnetic flow measurements on the graft are also easily done. In the brief span of an acute experiment, immunologic rejection of this heterograft is irrelevant; the same applies to aneurysmatic changes in the wall. After using Dacron grafts, canine jugular veins, and canine carotid arteries for our femoro-femoral hemodynamic experiments, we find the untreated human umbilical vein the most convenient of all materials. R. Adar, M.D., F.I.C.A. Department of Surgery The Chaim Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Israel Reference Dardik, I.I. , Dardik, H.: The fate of human umbilical cord vessels used as interposition arterial grafts in the baboon. Surg. Gynecol. Obstet., 140: 567, 1975 Dardik, I.I. , Dardik, H. :

PY - 1978/9

Y1 - 1978/9

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0018071360&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/153857447801200503

DO - 10.1177/153857447801200503

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AN - SCOPUS:0018071360

SN - 1538-5744

VL - 12

SP - 306

EP - 307

JO - Vascular and Endovascular Surgery

JF - Vascular and Endovascular Surgery

IS - 5

ER -