Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency Syndromes

Introduction

One of the crucial events during the inflammatory response is the adhesion of the leukocytes to the blood vessels endothelium. This process is very dynamic and involves several precise steps. Different types of adhesion molecules take part in each of the steps of the adhesion cascade. Once the endothelium is stimulated by various insults, the selectins, which are expressed only on activated endothelium, will bind to their ligands on the leukocytes. These saylated ligands, which contain fucose in their structure, are constitutively expressed on the leukocyte. This binding is a loose one and thus the leukocyte will start rolling on the endothelium. During this rolling, which is the first step of the cascade, the leukocyte will come in contact with various chemokines and thus will activate the integrin molecules on the leukocyte surface. Once the activation occurs, integrins will bind to their ligand, intracellular adhesion molecules (ICAMs), which is normally expressed on...