Molecules Blood cells respond rapidly to injury or stressful situations and initiate defensive or reparatory processes.
Platelets form a platelet plug to stop bleeding.
All this requires activation of adhesive processes that allow vascular cells to bind to each other and to cells in the organs where the leukocytes emigrate. Our laboratory studies the adhesion molecules involved, the regulation of their expression, and their function in normal physiology and in pathological situations. We have engineered mice lacking platelet, endothelial, or leukocyte adhesion receptors. These animals allow us to model human diseases with similar defects and to evaluate the performance of the mutant blood cells in live vessels through intravital microscopy. We study platelet adhesion to the vessel wall, which can lead to thrombus formation and sometimes embolization, and evaluate the importance of adhesion molecules in inflammatory processes such as atherosclerosis, the narrowing of arteries.