Search results for "ENDOTHELIAL CELL"
showing 10 items of 497 documents
Proteolytic Enzymes Clustered in Specialized Plasma-Membrane Domains Drive Endothelial Cells’ Migration
2016
In vitro cultured endothelial cells forming a continuous monolayer establish stable cell-cell contacts and acquire a "resting" phenotype; on the other hand, when growing in sparse conditions these cells acquire a migratory phenotype and invade the empty area of the culture. Culturing cells in different conditions, we compared expression and clustering of proteolytic enzymes in cells having migratory versus stationary behavior. In order to observe resting and migrating cells in the same microscopic field, a continuous cell monolayer was wounded. Increased expression of proteolytic enzymes was evident in cell membranes of migrating cells especially at sprouting sites and in shed membrane vesi…
Mitochondrial targeting as a novel therapy for stroke
2018
Stroke is a main cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Despite the increasing development of innovative treatments for stroke, most are unsuccessful in clinical trials. In recent years, an encouraging strategy for stroke therapy has been identified in stem cells transplantation. In particular, grafting cells and their secretion products are leading with functional recovery in stroke patients by promoting the growth and function of the neurovascular unit – a communication framework between neurons, their supply microvessels along with glial cells – underlying stroke pathology and recovery. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been recently recognized as a hallmark in ischemia/reperfusion neur…
Multicellular Interactions in 3D Engineered Myocardial Tissue
2018
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the US and many countries worldwide. Current cell-based clinical trials to restore cardiomyocyte (CM) health by local delivery of cells have shown only moderate benefit in improving cardiac pumping capacity. CMs have highly organized physiological structure and interact dynamically with non-CM populations, including endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Within engineered myocardial tissue, non-CM populations play an important role in CM survival and function, in part by secreting paracrine factors and cell-cell interactions. In this review, we will summarize the progress of engineering myocardial tissue with pre-formed physiological multice…
Elevated sodium leads to the increased expression of HSP60 and induces apoptosis in HUVECs
2017
Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of death in the world. We have previously shown that expression of heat shock protein 60 (HSP60) on the surface of endothelial cells is the main cause of initiating the disease as it acts as a T cell auto-antigen and can be triggered by classical atherosclerosis risk factors, such as infection (e.g. Chlamydia pneumoniae), chemical stress (smoking, oxygen radicals, drugs), physical insult (heat, shear blood flow) and inflammation (inflammatory cytokines, lipopolysaccharide, oxidized low density lipoprotein, advanced glycation end products). In the present study, we show that increasing levels of sodium chloride can also induce an increase in intracellular…
MARTX Toxin in the Zoonotic Serovar of Vibrio vulnificus Triggers an Early Cytokine Storm in Mice
2017
Vibrio vulnificus biotype 2-serovar E is a zoonotic clonal complex that can cause death by sepsis in humans and fish. Unlike other biotypes, Bt2 produces a unique type of MARTXVv (Multifunctional-Autoprocessive-Repeats-in-Toxin; RtxA13), which is encoded by a gene duplicated in the pVvBt2 plasmid and chromosome II. In this work, we analyzed the activity of this toxin and its role in human sepsis by performing in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo assays. First, we demonstrated that the ACD domain, present exclusively in this toxin variant, effectively has an actin-cross-linking activity. Second, we determined that the whole toxin caused death of human endotheliocytes and monocytes by lysis and apo…
Transport of Amino Acids Across the Blood-Brain Barrier.
2020
The blood-brain-barrier (BBB), present in brain capillaries, constitutes an essential barrier mechanism for normal functioning and development of the brain. The presence of tight junctions between adjacent endothelial cells restricts permeability and movement of molecules between extracellular fluid and plasma. The protein complexes that control cell-cell attachment also polarize cellular membrane, so that it can be divided into luminal (blood-facing) and abluminal (brain) sides, and each solute that enters/leaves the brain must cross both membranes. Several amino acid (AA) transport systems with different distributions on both sides of the BBB have been described. In a broad sense, there a…
Restoration of Impaired Metabolic Energy Balance (ATP Pool) and Tube Formation Potential of Endothelial Cells under “high glucose”, Diabetic Conditio…
2017
Micro-vascularization is a fast, energy-dependent process that is compromised by elevated glucose concentrations such as in diabetes mellitus disease. Here, we studied the effect of the physiological bioinorganic polymer, polyphosphate (polyP), on the reduced ATP content and impaired function of endothelial cells cultivated under "high glucose" (35 mM diabetes mellitus conditions) concentrations. This high-energy biopolymer has been shown to provide a source of metabolic energy, stored in its phosphoanhydride bonds. We show that exposure of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC cells) to "high glucose" levels results in reduced cell viability, increased apoptotic cell death, and a d…
How to Predict the Suitability for Corneal Donorship?
2021
Background: In Germany, more than one-third of donor corneas harvested are not suitable for transplantation. We evaluated the factors associated with the usability of donor corneas. Method: Data from 2032 consecutive donor corneas harvested at the Rhineland-Palatinate Eye Bank in Mainz, Germany, were retrospectively analyzed. Factors of interest were age, sex, lens status, cause of death, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), death-to-explantation-interval (DEI), and the influence of these factors on the proportion of discarded donor corneas. Factors associated with endothelial cell density (ECD) were analyzed in a linear regression mixed model. Results: Higher donor age, male gender, pseudo…
COVID-19 Sepsis and Microcirculation Dysfunction
2020
The spreading of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, known as COVID-19, has caused a great number of fatalities all around the World. Up to date (2020 May 6) in Italy we had more than 28,000 deaths, while there were more than 205.000 infected. The majority of patients affected by COVID-19 complained only slight symptoms: fatigue, myalgia or cough, but more than 15% of Chinese patients progressed into severe complications, with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), needing intensive treatment. We tried to summarize data reported in the last months from several Countries, highlighting that COVID-19 was characterized by cytokine storm (CS) and endothelial dysfunction in severely ill patie…
Cellular mechanisms of IL-17-induced blood-brain barrier disruption.
2009
Recently T-helper 17 (Th17) cells were demonstrated to disrupt the blood-brain barrier (BBB) by the action of IL-17A. The aim of the present study was to examine the mechanisms that underlie IL-17A-induced BBB breakdown. Barrier integrity was analyzed in the murine brain endothelial cell line bEnd.3 by measuring the electrical resistance values using electrical call impedance sensing technology. Furthermore, in-cell Western blots, fluorescence imaging, and monocyte adhesion and transendothelial migration assays were performed. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was induced in C57BL/6 mice. IL-17A induced NADPH oxidase- or xanthine oxidase-dependent reactive oxygen species (ROS)…