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Organization and signaling of endothelial cell-to-cell junctions in various regions of the blood and lymphatic vascular trees

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Abstract

Adhesive intercellular junctions between endothelial cells are formed by tight junctions and adherens junctions. In addition to promoting cell-to-cell adhesion, these structures regulate paracellular permeability, contact inhibition of endothelial cell growth, cell survival, and maintenance of cell polarity. Furthermore, adherens junctions are required for the correct organization of new vessels during embryo development or during tissue proliferation in the adult. Extensive research on cultured epithelial and endothelial cells has resulted in the identification of many molecular components of tight junctions and adherens junctions. Such studies have revealed the complexity of these structures, which are formed by membrane-associated adhesion proteins and a network of several intracellular signaling partners. This review focuses on the structural organization of junctional structures and their functional interactions in the endothelium of blood vessels and lymphatics. We emphasize the way that these structures regulate endothelial cell homeostasis by transferring specific intracellular signals and by modulating activation and signaling of growth factor receptors.

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Acknowledgements

As a reflection of the broad interest in this field, many studies been performed, and we apologize to authors whose work could not be cited because of space constraints. We thank Amy Haskell and Hiroya Hashizume for electron microscopy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IFOM , FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Via Adamello 16, 20139, Milan, Italy

    Elisabetta Dejana, Fabrizio Orsenigo & Cinzia Molendini

  2. Department of Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnologies, School of Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Elisabetta Dejana

  3. Department of Anatomy, Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, USA

    Peter Baluk & Donald M. McDonald

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  1. Elisabetta Dejana
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  2. Fabrizio Orsenigo
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  3. Cinzia Molendini
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  4. Peter Baluk
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  5. Donald M. McDonald
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Correspondence to Elisabetta Dejana.

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This work was supported by the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Association for International Cancer Research, European Community (Integrated Project Contract no. LSHG-CT-2004–503573; NoE MAIN 502935; NoE EVGN 503254; EUSTROKE consortium; Angioscaff consortium; Optistem consortium), Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italian Ministry of Health, MIUR (COFIN prot: 2006058482_002), and Fondation Leducq Transatlantic Network of Excellence (E.D.). Additional support came from US National Institutes of Health grants HL24136 and HL59157 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and CA82923 from the National Cancer Institute and AngelWorks Foundation (D.McD.).

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Dejana, E., Orsenigo, F., Molendini, C. et al. Organization and signaling of endothelial cell-to-cell junctions in various regions of the blood and lymphatic vascular trees. Cell Tissue Res 335, 17–25 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-008-0694-5

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