Principal Investigator
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Affiliations
- David H. Smith Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology
- Microbiology & Immunology
- Vascular Biophysics Research Group
Inflammation caused by tissue damage or injury characterized by redness, heat, swelling, and pain is a necessary and beneficial process for the survival of the host as a defense reaction. One of major inflammatory responses is leukocytes (white blood cells) transmigration through blood vessel endothelium and accumulation at the site of injury. The primary objective of inflammation is to localize and eradicate the pathogens and irritants, and repair the surrounding tissue. However, inflammation sometime can cause autoimmune diseases or systemic inflammatory reactions by hypersensitive response. Since the one of ultimate goals of inflammation research is to develop methods to control inflammation by modulating and blocking hyperactive leukocyte infiltration into tissues, the roles of integrins, cell surface adhesion molecules involved in leukocyte migration, have been investigated.