background: acute kidney injury (aki) has been recognized as one of the most complex clinical complications in modern medicine, and ischemia/reperfusion (i/r) injury is well-known as a main reason of aki. in addition, aki leads to important systemic consequences such as acute lung injury. this study was designed to investigate the role of erythropoietin (epo) on kidney function makers and tissu...

RATIONALE In chronic heart failure, the lung endothelial permeability response to angiotensin II or thapsigargin-induced store depletion is ablated, although the mechanisms are not understood. OBJECTIVES To determine whether the ablated permeability response to store depletion during heart failure was due to impaired expression of store operated Ca2+ channels in lung endothelium. METHODS He...

Increased endothelial permeability contributes to the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic inflammatory diseases, including acute lung injury. Cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) transcriptional factor induces genes that regulate inflammation and vascular remodeling. However, the role of CREB in regulating endothelial barrier function is unknown. Here, we demonstrate t...

Mediators of angiogenesis such as VEGFs and angiopoietins may regulate pulmonary vascular permeability under normal and pathological conditions. Ephrin family receptor tyrosine kinases are expressed in the vasculature and also regulate angiogenesis under some circumstances, but whether they also modulate lung vascular permeability is unknown. We hypothesized that stimulation of lung endothelial...

This brief review assesses the role of Ca2+ signaling in lung endothelium in regulation of endothelial permeability. The disconnect between experimental and clinical outcomes to date may be due, in part, to the use of tools which yield information about aggregate permeability or Ca2+ responses in lung or in endothelial monolayers. The teaching point of this review is to "unpack the box," i.e. c...

Rho family GTPases have been implicated in the regulation of endothelial permeability via their actions on actin cytoskeletal organization and integrity of interendothelial junctions. In cell culture studies, activation of RhoA disrupts interendothelial junctions and increases endothelial permeability, whereas activation of Rac1 and Cdc42 enhances endothelial barrier function by promoting the f...

Re-expansion of a collapsed lung increases the microvascular permeability and causes re-expansion pulmonary edema. Neutrophils and their products have been implicated in the development of this phenomenon. The small GTP-binding proteins Rho and its target Rho-kinase (ROCK) regulate endothelial permeability, though their roles in re-expansion pulmonary edema remain unclear. We studied the contri...

Acute lung injury secondary to sepsis is a leading cause of mortality in sepsis-related death. Present therapies are not effective in reversing endothelial cell dysfunction, which plays a key role in increased vascular permeability and compromised lung function. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a molecular sensor important for detection and mediation of cellular adaptations to vascular di...

BACKGROUND Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause severe pneumonia in critically ill patients. We have reported previously that P. aeruginosa exotoxins S and T mediate in vitro the increase in protein permeability across lung endothelial cell monolayers via a RhoA-dependent mechanism. However, whether inhibition of RhoA would significantly attenuate P. aeruginosa-med...

Reexpansion of a collapsed lung increases the microvascular permeability and causes reexpansion pulmonary edema. Neutrophils and their products have been implicated in the development of this phenomenon. The small GTP-binding proteins Rho and its target Rho-kinase (ROCK) regulate endothelial permeability, although their roles in reexpansion pulmonary edema remain unclear. We studied the contrib...