Microvascular Permeability

Cellular and Integrative Biology, Division of Biomedical Sciences, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom; and Department of Human Physiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, California Michel, C. C. and F. E. Curry. Microvascular Permeability. Physiol. Rev....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physiological reviews 1999-07, Vol.79 (3), p.703-761
Main Authors: Michel, C. C, Curry, F. E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Blood vessels
Body Water - metabolism
Capillaries - anatomy & histology
Capillaries - physiology
Capillary Permeability - physiology
Cellular biology
Humans
Macromolecular Substances
Membranes
Microcirculation
Permeability
Physiological aspects
Signal Transduction - physiology
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Summary:Cellular and Integrative Biology, Division of Biomedical Sciences, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom; and Department of Human Physiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, California Michel, C. C. and F. E. Curry. Microvascular Permeability. Physiol. Rev. 79: 703-761, 1999. This review addresses classical questions concerning microvascular permeabiltiy in the light of recent experimental work on intact microvascular beds, single perfused microvessels, and endothelial cell cultures. Analyses, based on ultrastructural data from serial sections of the clefts between the endothelial cells of microvessels with continuous walls, conform to the hypothesis that different permeabilities to water and small hydrophilic solutes in microvessels of different tissues can be accounted for by tortuous three-dimensional pathways that pass through breaks in the junctional strands. A fiber matrix ultrafilter at the luminal entrance to the clefts is essential if microvascular walls are to retain their low permeability to macromolecules. Quantitative estimates of exchange through the channels in the endothelial cell membranes suggest that these contribute little to the permeability of most but not all microvessels. The arguments against the convective transport of macromolecules through porous pathways and for the passage of macromolecules by transcytosis via mechanisms linked to the integrity of endothelial vesicles are evaluated. Finally, intracellular signaling mechanisms implicated in transient increases in venular microvessel permeability such as occur in acute inflammation are reviewed in relation to studies of the molecular mechanisms involved in signal transduction in cultured endothelial cells.
ISSN:0031-9333
1522-1210
DOI:10.1152/physrev.1999.79.3.703