Summary
Circulating endotoxin is elevated in sepsis and plays a role in endothelial dysfunction
whereas antithrombin is decreased by virtue of its consumption during complex formation
with clotting factors and by proteolytic degradation by granulocyte elastase. Dysfunction
of endothelium results in enhanced leukocyte rolling and diapedesis into tissues leading
to edema formation and injury. Antithrombin exerts beneficial effects on endothelial
function in sepsis. A direct anti-inflammatory action of anti-thrombin in inflammatory
cells is exerted via heparan sulfate proteoglycans. In this study, we investigated
whether antithrom-bin affects endotoxin-induced adhesion of neutrophils to human endothelial
cells in vitro and whether glycosaminoglycans are involved in its signaling. Adhesion of human neutrophils
to monolayers of umbilical vein endothelial cells was tested under static conditions.
Endothelial cells were pretreated with endotoxin, interleukin-1, heparinase-I, chondroitinase-ABC
or anti-syndecan-4-antibody. Endotoxin and interleukin-1 increased neutrophil adherence
to human umbilical vein endothelial cells which was inhibited by antithrombin. Concomitant
incubation with pentasaccharide abolished this effect of antithrombin. Treatment of
endothelial cells with heparinase or chondroitinase led to higher adhesion and prevented
effects of antithrom-bin. With antibodies to syndecan-4, enhanced adhesion of neutrophils
was observed. As studied by Western blotting, endo-toxin-induced signaling was diminished
by antithrombin and the effect was reversible by chondroitinase or heparinase. From
our results, we can conclude that endotoxin-induced adhesion of leukocytes to endothelium
can be reversed by ligation of syndecan-4 with antithrombin´s heparin-binding site
and interferences with stress response signaling events in endothelium.
Keywords
Syndecan-4 - neutrophils - antithrombin