Endothelial cell biology and the initiation of inflammation

“炎症最明显的迹象之一就是脓液的形成。这是白细胞在损伤部位的积累，在那里它们起到修复损伤的作用。为了从快速流动的血液中的细胞混合物中抓取白细胞，排列在血管内的细胞发生变化，因此它们变得选择性地粘性，而不是提供促进血液流动和防止凝块形成的光滑表面。这种选择性粘性来自衬里内皮细胞表面表达的一组特殊分子。结合的白细胞聚集在内皮表面，然后在内皮细胞之间传递到它们活动的组织中。因此，内皮细胞以一种受调控的方式暴露并回收粘性分子--选择素的能力，在控制炎症的启动方面发挥着重要作用。CBU以及英国和海外的合作者组成了一个由六名科学家组成的团队，他们正试图了解支撑这一过程的分子机制。我们研究了从我们可以在实验室培养的脐带静脉衬里提取的人类细胞的问题。通过了解控制这一过程的机制，我们希望学习如何操纵它，以便更好地控制炎症性疾病。

"One of the most visible signs of inflammation is the formation of pus. This is the accumulation of white blood cells at sites of injury, where they act to repair damage. To grab the white cells out of the mix of cells in rapidly flowing blood, the cells lining the blood vessels change so that instead of providing a smooth surface which promotes the flow of blood and prevents the formation of clots, they become selectively sticky. This selective stickiness comes from a special set of molecules that the lining endothelial cells express on their surface. The bound white cells accumulate on the surface of the endothelium, and then pass out between the endothelial cells into the tissue where they act. The endothelial cells ability to expose and then retrieve the sticky molecules, the selectins, in a regulated fashion, thus plays a big role in controlling the initiation of inflammation. The team of about half a dozen scientists at the CBU plus collaborators in the UK and abroad are trying to understand the molecular machinery that underpins this process. We study the problem in human cells taken from the lining of umbilical veins which we can grow in the laboratory. By understanding the machinery that controls this process, we hope to learn how to manipulate it so as to gain better control over inflammatory disease."