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The inflammatory response of lymphatic endothelium

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Abstract

Lymphatic vessels have traditionally been regarded as a rather inert drainage system, which just passively transports fluids, leukocytes and antigen. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the lymphatic vasculature is highly dynamic and plays a much more active role in inflammatory and immune processes. Tissue inflammation induces a rapid, stimulus-specific upregulation of chemokines and adhesion molecules in lymphatic endothelial cells and a proliferative expansion of the lymphatic network in the inflamed tissue and in draining lymph nodes. Moreover, increasing evidence suggests that inflammation-induced changes in the lymphatic vasculature have a profound impact on the course of inflammatory and immune responses, by modulating fluid drainage, leukocyte migration or the removal of inflammatory mediators from tissues. In this review we will summarize and discuss current knowledge of the inflammatory response of lymphatic endothelium and of inflammation-induced lymphangiogenesis and the current perspective on the overall functional significance of these processes.

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Acknowledgments

CH gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant 310030_138330).

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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  1. Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli Str. 10, HCI H413, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland

    David Aebischer, Maria Iolyeva & Cornelia Halin

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  1. David Aebischer
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  2. Maria Iolyeva
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  3. Cornelia Halin
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Correspondence to Cornelia Halin.

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Aebischer, D., Iolyeva, M. & Halin, C. The inflammatory response of lymphatic endothelium. Angiogenesis 17, 383–393 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10456-013-9404-3

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