ABSTRACT
The widespread use of prosthetic vascular graft materials has also prompted a growing understanding of the importance of endothelial cell seeding efficiency, longevity, and anticoagulant function for the success of such diverse applications as patch materials for intracardiac defects and small vessel bypass grafts. Extracellular magnesium in physiologic concentrations inhibits endothelial motility, whereas abnormally high concentrations are stimulatory. This chapter demonstrates that immobilization of the focal adhesion protein talin in fibroblasts by microinjection of specific antibodies resulted in the inhibition of both focal adhesion formation and cell migration. It discusses a relationship between oscillations in intracellular calcium and integrin-mediated endothelial cell spreading on fibronectin. The chapter focuses the study of phosphotyrosine in an in vitro model of human vascular endothelial wound healing in response to mechanical injury. It employs specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors with two different mechanisms of action to probe the issues.
