Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) are diseases caused by hantavirus infections and are characterized by vascular leakage due to alterations of the endothelial barrier. Hantavirus-infected endothelial cells (EC) display no overt cytopathology; consequently, pathogenesis models have focused either on the influx of immune cells and release of cyto...

Dendritic cells (DC) are migratory cells which exhibit complex trafficking properties in vivo, involving interaction with vascular and lymphatic endothelium and extracellular matrix (ECM). The underlying mechanisms involved in these processes are still ill defined. In the present study we have investigated the ability of DC to interact in vitro with human vascular endothelial cells (EC) and ECM...

Abnormal glycosylation is a typical hallmark of the transition from healthy to neoplastic tissues. Although the importance of glycans and glycan-binding proteins in cancer-related processes such as tumor cell adhesion, migration, metastasis and immune escape has been largely appreciated, our awareness of the impact of lectin-glycan recognition in tumor vascularization is relatively new. Regulat...

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is generally known as a manageable but not yet curable autoimmune disease affecting central nervous system. A potential therapeutic approach should possess several properties: Prevent immune system from damaging the brain and spinal cord, promote differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) into mature oligodendrocytes to p...

OBJECTIVE The function of the endothelial cell (EC)-enriched Rho family guanine nucleotide exchange factor, facio-genital dysplasia-5 (FGD5), is poorly understood. We sought to determine whether FGD5 regulates endothelial cytoskeletal reorganization and angiogenesis. METHODS AND RESULTS We observed that FGD5 is expressed in primary human EC isolated from sites across the vasculature. Inhibiti...

Reciprocal growth factor exchanges between endothelial and malignant cells within the hypoxic microenvironment determine tumor progression. However, the nature of these exchanges has not yet been fully explored. We studied the mutual regulation between endothelial cells (EC), melanoma cells and hypoxia that dictate tumor aggressiveness and angiogenic activity. Here, we investigated the presence...

Infection with Shiga toxin- and Shiga-like toxin-producing strains of Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli, respectively, can progress to the hemolytic-uremic syndrome. It has been hypothesized that circulating Shiga toxin, Shiga-like toxins, and endotoxins may contribute to the disease by directly damaging glomerular endothelial cells. The effects of these toxins on HeLa, Vero, and human ...

Human melanoma cell lines that express high constitutive levels of the metastasis-associated marker intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) were found to secrete interleukin 1 (IL-1) in vitro. Experiments with neutralizing antibodies showed that this cytokine was responsible for their expression of ICAM-1 but not that of two other progression/metastasis markers, Muc-18 and Gp IIb/IIIa. The I...

We compared the properties of the ectonucleotidases (nucleoside triphosphatase, EC 3.6.1.15; nucleoside diphosphatase, EC 3.6.1.6; 5'-nucleotidase, EC 3.1.3.5) in intact pig aortic smooth-muscle cells in culture with the properties that we previously investigated for ectonucleotidases of aortic endothelial cells [Cusack, Pearson & Gordon (1983) Biochem. J. 214, 975-981]. In experiments with nuc...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Other. Main source(s): De Montfort PhD funded scholarship scheme Introduction During the early stages atherosclerosis, monocytes attach to endothelial cells (EC) before differentiating into macrophages causing accumulation foam and plaque growth. NF-κB vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) are some main mediators in EC that involve...