Abstract
Endothelial cells line the inside of blood vessels and form a semi‐permeable barrier. Curiously, arteriosclerotic vascular disease (ASVD) is frequently exhibited within the systemic vasculature, whilst ASVD is rarely observed within the pulmonary vasculature. Since both vessel types transport the same components, this suggests some differences between the pulmonary and systemic endothelium that may underlie development of ASVD. We hypothesize that the surficial glycocalyx of the vessels plays a significant role in arteriosclerotic plaque formation.The glycan compositions of the pulmonary and systemic vasculatures have not been examined in detail. We compared rat pulmonary artery (PAECs) and rat pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) with rat aortic endothelial cells (AOECs, systemic) and human coronary artery cells (HCACs, systemic) using a panel of fluorescently‐tagged lectins; key differences in the surficial carbohydrate expression on the glycocalyx in the pulmonary versus systemic vasculatures was observed. Most notably, systemic AOECs and HCACs showed a very high expression of 9‐acetylated sialic acid (9‐OAc‐Neu5Ac), whilst the pulmonary PAECs and PMVECs had little. In contrast, the pulmonary cells strongly expressed terminal á‐mannose, whereas the systemic cells showed a weak á‐mannose expression. Supported by 5R00HL089361.
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