Harrington, Elizabeth O., Julie Newton, Nicole Morin, and Sharon Rounds. Barrier dysfunction and RhoA activation are blunted by homocysteine and adenosine in pulmonary endothelium. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 287: L1091–L1097, 2004. First published July 30, 2004; doi:10.1152/ajplung.00421.2003.—RhoA GTPases modulate endothelial permeability. We have previously shown that adenosine and ho...

BACKGROUND Even protective ventilation may aggravate or induce lung failure, particularly in preinjured lungs. Thus, new adjuvant pharmacologic strategies are needed to minimize ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Intermedin/Adrenomedullin-2 (IMD) stabilized pulmonary endothelial barrier function in vitro. We hypothesized that IMD may attenuate VILI-associated lung permeability in vivo. ME...

Renal ischemia-reperfusion (rI/R) could cause remote acute lung injury (ALI) and combination of these two organ injuries can remarkably increase the mortality. This study aims to determine whether dexmedetomidine, an α2-adrenoreceptor agonist sedative, can ameliorate pulmonary microvascular hyper-permeability following rI/R injury and explore the underlying mechanisms. In vivo, C57BL/6J mice re...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the most severe form of lung injury, characterised by alveolar oedema and vascular permeability, in part due to disruption of the alveolar capillary membrane integrity. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was originally identified as a vascular permeability factor and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury/ARDS. This revi...

Acute lung injury (ALI) causes high mortality, but its molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. Acid aspiration is a frequent cause of ALI, leading to neutrophil sequestration, increased permeability, and deterioration of gas exchange. We investigated the role of platelet-neutrophil interactions in a murine model of acid-induced ALI. Acid aspiration induced P-selectin-dependent platelet-neut...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a pluripotent growth and permeability factor that has a broad impact on endothelial cell function. The lung tissue is very rich in this protein; many different lung cells produce VEGF and also respond to VEGF. VEGF is critical for the development of the lung and serves as a maintenance factor during adult life. In addition to the physiological functi...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent mediator of increased vascular permeability and an endothelial cell mitogen. Because VEGF is upregulated during ventilated ischemia of isolated lungs and may lead to both increased vascular permeability and neovascularization, we hypothesized that VEGF and kinase insert domain-containing receptor/fetal liver kinase-1 (KDR/flk-1) expression w...

The mechanisms involved in the restoration of endothelial cell junctions subsequent to barrier disruption remain unclear. It is known that formation of adherens junctions (AJs) affects cytoskeletal actin arrangement and that Rho GTPases regulate the state of actin polymerization. In the present study, we examined the role of the Rho GTPases, Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 in the reannealing of AJs. We stu...

We previously reported that platelets release a soluble factor that decreases the solute permeability of cultured bovine aortic endothelial monolayers. This factor was characterized as heat stable, trypsin sensitive, and not serotonin, adenosine, ADP, or ATP [F. R. Haselton and J. S. Alexander. Am. J. Physiol. 263 ( Lung Cell Mol. Physiol. 7): L670-L678, 1992]. We now report its identity as lys...

Sandoval, Raudel, Asrar B. Malik, Tabassum Naqvi, Dolly Mehta, and Chinnaswamy Tiruppathi. Requirement for Ca signaling in the mechanism of thrombininduced increase in endothelial permeability. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 280: L239–L247, 2001.—We compared the thrombin-activated responses in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and a HUVEC-derived cell line, ECV304. Thrombin in...