The vascular endothelium forms a thin, continuous monolayer that lines the cardiovascular system and thus, is positioned strategically at the interface between flowing blood and the body’s underlying tissues and organs. By virtue of this anatomical location, the vascular endothelium plays a critical role in regulating the blood vessel wall in normal and pathophysiological settings such as inflammatory and immune responses. It is now well appreciated that the endothelium is not just a passive barrier, but in fact, a large multifunctional organ that actively participates in many critical processes including inflammation and response to injury, selective barrier function, vascular tone by producing vasoconstricting and vasorelaxing substances, hemostatic functions, chronic vascular remodeling, extracellular matrix and transduction of biomechanical forces, to name a few.
The Luscinskas lab’s focus is to understand endothelial dependent mechanisms in recruitment of chronic inflammatory leukocytes to sites of inflammatory and immune reactions.