Intravenous Tomato Lectin Injection to Assess Functional Vasculature

Pluripotent stem cells have recently allowed for the development of tissue models for the various organ systems within the body. These models allow scientists to study organ function, physiology, embryology, and even pathologic processes. Studies on tissue can be done in vitro and/or transplanted into animal models for studies in vivo. Recently, our lab developed a model of human small intestine derived from human pluripotent stem cells which when transplanted in vivo, matured into an intestinal structure similar to that of adult intestine. The maturity of the transplanted human intestinal tissue was dependent upon the development of an adequate blood supply primarily from the murine host. In order to better study the developed vascular network within our transplanted intestinal tissue, we injected Fluorescein labeled Lycopersicon esculentum (tomato) lectin into the mouse tail vein (Watson et al., 2014). Using the property of this lectin to bind to the endothelium, we were able to visualize the vasculature within the transplant.