But, how do we get enough endothelial cells to study? "Take them from humans," you may answer. But the question is, how do we get the large number of cells necessary to perform the experiments? Cells that are directly obtained from the human body are called primary cells. Obtaining primary endothelial cells is very difficult. More importantly, only a limited number of primary cells can be isolated from a person without doing them any harm. This number is not sufficient to study the cells or to test new drugs. Also, since primary cells are fully differentiated, they do not proliferate much after they are taken from the body, so the number of isolated cells will not increase over time. Scientists have learned how to modify primary cells in the lab, so that they proliferate. This process is called immortalization and the resulting cells are called immortalized cells. Continuously proliferating cells, either derived from tumors or generated in the lab by modification of primary cells.

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