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Development of an in vitro system to grow and investigate vascular endothelial cells under physiological flow (133/12) Prof. Robert Rieben, Department of Clinical Research, University of Berne, Switzerland. The function of endothelial cells in the walls of blood vessels is often investigated in vivo, causing suffering to the laboratory animals involved. Conventional in vitro procedures simulate the physiological conditions with inadequate accuracy. This new in vitro experimental method is aimed at replacing many such in vivo studies. In the proposed in vitro model the pressure and shearing power of the pulsating blood, for example, are simulated. This system should make it possible to find answers to questions concerning ischaemia, reperfusion and transplantation that have so far been investigated in in vivo experiments involving considerable pain and suffering for the laboratory animals concerned.
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