Main description:

Beyond their obvious role of a barrier between blood and tissue, vascular endothelial cells are now firmly established as active and essential participants in a host of crucial physiological and pathophysiological functions. Probably the two most important factors responsible for promoting the current knowledge of endothelial functions are 1) observations in the late sixties-early seventies that many non-ventilatory properties of the lung could be attributed to the pulmonary endothelium and 2) the establishment, in the early and mid-seventies of procedures for routine culture of vascular endothelial cells. Many of these endothelial functions require the presence of receptors on the surface of the plasma membrane. There is now evidence for the existence among others of muscarinic, a-and /3-adrenergic, purine, insulin, histamine, bradykinin, lipoprotein, thrombin, paf, fibronectin, vitronectin, interleukin and albumin receptors. For some of these ligands, there is evidence only for the existence of endothelial binding sites. Traditionally, agonist binding must elicit a response for the binding site to be considered a receptor and, in some cases, the nature of the response resulting from the interaction of a substance with the endothelium remains unclear. It is beyond the scope of this introduction to even enumerate the various endothelial homeostatic processes. This monograph contains the proceedings of the Advanced Studies Institute on "Vascular Endothelium: Receptors and Transduction Mechanisms" held in Porto Carras, Greece from June 18-29, 1988.

Contents:

I. Properties of Endothelial Cell Plasmalemma.- Structural Basis for Endothelial Cell Function: Role of Calcium, Polyphosphoinositide Turnover and G-Proteins.- Modulation of Endothelial Permeability: Role of Receptors, Second Messengers and Ion Channels.- Factors Affecting the Fluidity of the Endothelial Cell Plasma Membrane.- Vascular Endothelial Surface Proteins in the Perfused Rabbit Lung.- Endothelial Specific Binding Sites for Permeant Plasma Macromolecules: Albumin Binding Proteins.- II. Receptors.- Purine Receptors on Endothelial Cells.- Muscarinic Receptors on Endothelial Cells.- Comparison between PAF-Acether Receptors on Intact Washed Human Platelets and Human Endothelial Cells in Culture.- Prostaglandins as Transducers of Proliferation Signals in Microvascular Endothelial Cells and the Pharmacological Control of Angiogenesis.- The Role of Basement Membrane in Angiogenesis.- The Role of Cytokines in the Symbiotic Relationship between Leukocytes and Vascular Endothelia.- Response of Vascular Cells to Herpes Simplex Virus Infection.- Receptors for Extracellular Matrix Proteins in Endothelial Cells.- Cellular Distribution and Heterogeneity of Endothelial Cell Adhesion Receptors.- III. Messengers.- Modulation of the Guanylate Cyclase -cGMP System by Vasodilators and the Role of Free Radicals as Second Messengers.- Agonist Stimulated Changes in Human Endothelial Cell Cytosolic Calcium.- Multiple Messenger Roles for the Inhibitory GTP-Binding Protein, Gi, in Human Platelets.- Diacylglycerols and Protein Kinase-C.- Transduction of Purinoceptor-Mediated Endothelial Cell Responses.- Protein Phosphorylation in Endothelial Cell Membranes: Relationship to Growth Control.- Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilation and the Nature of the Endothelium-Derived Relaxing Factor.- Endothelium-Derived Vasodilators.- Generation and Transmission of Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilator Signals.- IV. Abstracts of Oral and Poster Presentations.- V. Listofparticipants.- VI. Index.