Selectins are carbohydrate-binding molecules that bind to fucosylated and sialylated glycoprotein ligands, and are found on endothelial cells, leukocytes and platelets. They are involved in trafficking of cells of the innate immune system, T lymphocytes and platelets. An absence of selectins or selectin ligands has serious consequences in mice or humans, leading to recurrent bacterial infection...

Lectin selectins and their counter-receptors participate in discontinuous cell-cell interactions concurrent with leukocyte tethering and rolling on endothelium, which, in consequence, leads to leukocyte penetration to lymphatic organs and generation of inflammation sites. Counter-receptors are glycoproteins in which carbohydrate units, the direct selectin ligands, are built into the polypeptide...

Sepsis--a state of systemic bacterial infection--often leads to multiorgan failure and is associated with high mortality despite the recent advances achieved in intensive care treatment. Many of the ill effects of sepsis are attributed to an abnormally enhanced host inflammatory response that leads to neutrophil recruitment and activation involving selectins, a class of adhesion molecules, in t...

Research findings are unveiling the potential role of leukocytes and leukocyte adhesion molecules such as selectins in ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). "Anti-adhesion" therapy using selectin blocking agents may represent a new approach to treatment of the many diverse clinical disorders in which ischemia-reperfusion occurs, including transplantation, reperfusion after thrombotic events and sh...