Focal recruitment of monocytes and lymphocytes is one of the earliest detectable cellular responses in the formation of lesions of atherosclerosis. This localized accumulation of leukocytes is a multistep process in which the endothelium remains intact and may regulate leukocyte recruitment by expressing specific adhesion molecules. To examine the relationship of adhesion molecule expression to...

Lichens have been known to possess multiple biological activities, including anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory activities. Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) may play a role in the development of atherosclerosis. Hence, VCAM-1 is a possible therapeutic target in the treatment of the inflammatory disease. However, the effect of lobaric acid on VCAM-1 has not yet been investigated ...

CD44 is a ubiquitous molecule also known as hyaluronic acid or homing receptor. However, the cellular functions and its role in inflammation, for example, rheumatoid synovitis, are currently unknown. In this study, we propose a novel function for CD44. Using synovial cells from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, we demonstrated that CD44 cross-linking and binding to hyaluronan augmented VCAM-1...

Integrins and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) are required for normal placental development. In this study, integrin subunits alpha4, alphav, beta1, and beta3, and VCAM-1 were investigated for expression in uteroplacental units (gestation day [g.d.] 6 and 8) and placentas (g.d. 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18) of Swiss-Webster mice. All subunits and VCAM-1 mRNA (identified by reverse transcri...

UNLABELLED Background- Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is critical in monocyte recruitment to the endothelium, a key event in development of atherosclerotic lesions. Stimulation of human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs) with ATP positively modulates VCAM-1 expression and function through a mechanism involving Ca(2+) signaling. We here examined the role of Ca(2+) influx and ...

Hyperpolarization in human leukemia THP-1 monocytes adherent to vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 is due to an induction of inwardly rectifying K(+) currents (I(ir)) (Colden-Stanfield M and Gallin EK, Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 275: C267-C277, 1998). We determined whether the VCAM-1-induced hyperpolarization is sufficient to augment the increase in intracellular free calcium ([Ca(2+)](i))...

Inflammation-induced activation of endothelium constitutes one of the earliest changes during atherogenesis. New imaging techniques that allow detecting activated endothelial cells can improve the identification of persons at high cardiovascular risk in early stages. Quantum dots (QDs) have attractive optical properties such as bright fluorescence and high photostability, and have been increasi...

Interactions between disseminated tumor cells (DTC) and stromal cells in the microenvironment are critical for tumor colonization of distal organs. Recent studies have shown that vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is aberrantly expressed in breast cancer cells and mediates prometastatic tumorstromal interactions.Moreover, the usefulness of VCAM-1 toDTCs in 2different organs—lung andbone...

The expression of certain endothelial cell adhesion molecules is increased during endothelial dysfunction or inflammatory activation. This has led to the concept of using microbubbles for targeted molecular imaging or drug delivery. In this approach, microbubbles with a specific ligand to receptors expressed at the site of specific diseases are constructed. The present study aimed to engineer a...