Endothelial adhesion molecules in atherogenesis. A concerto or a solo?

Abstract

There have been a number of key discoveries over the last 10 years that provide an understanding of the development of the cellular events of the inflammatory response. These began with the demonstration that proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1 induce endothelial cells to become adhesive for leukocytes1 2 and the subsequent discovery of the molecules responsible for this adhesiveness (eg, E-selectin, P-selectin, and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 [VCAM-1]3 4 5 ). A flurry of publications examining the details of leukocyte-endothelial interactions followed, but a unifying concept putting these interactions into a physiological context was missing. A breakthrough came with the description of the “three-step-model” of the development of the inflammatory response by Butcher6 and Springer.7 This model placed the adhesive events in a logical order, related them to physiologically relevant conditions of flow, ascribed particular molecules to distinct cellular events (in other words, created order out of chaos), and was enthusiastically embraced by the workers in the field. The three steps enunciated were 1) capture of leukocytes from the axial stream to roll along …