LEUKOCYTE ADHESION UNDER FLOW CONDITIONS - PRINCIPLES IMPORTANT IN TISSUE ENGINEERING

An understanding of inflammatory responses is important in a wide vari ety of tissue engineering applications. This review describes the curr ent understanding of a central aspect of inflammatory responses, the a dhesion of leucocytes to blood vessel walls prior to their emigration into tissues. These highly specific adhesive interactions are mediated by three main families of receptors: the selectins, integrins, and me mbers of the immunoglobulin superfamily. Under flow conditions, the va rious receptors make distinct contributions to a multistep process of adhesion in which leucocytes roll, adhere firmly, and eventually trans migrate. Two examples in which these principles are important in tissu e engineering research, lymphocyte adherence in transplant rejection a nd monocyte adherence in atherosclerosis, are discussed in the last pa rt of the paper.