Vascular Integrity & Wound Healing

Our group is also investigating the mechanisms by which the endothelium maintains its integrity and how it may be driven to break down during inflammatory disease. In this regard we recently uncovered a novel actin-remodeling activity (‘ventral lamellipodia’) that is able to heal micro-wounds formed a consequence of leukocyte trafficking. We showed that this activity is regulated through mechano-sensing of barrier discontinuities, which activates the actin regulator Rac-1 and, as a result, production of reactive-oxygen species (ROS) by NADPH oxidases. Our ongoing work in this area seeks to 1.) understand how oxidative stress may compromise normal homeostatic integrity maintenance and 2.) characterize novel therapeutic strategies that target this processes. We are also investigating how the newly uncovered tension/Rac1/ROS activities participate in collective cell migration during wound healing and angiogenesis.