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Updated: May 27, 2026

Visualizing Leukocyte Rolling and Adhesion in Angiotensin II-Infused Mice: Techniques and Pitfalls
Published on: January 4, 2018
Blood pressure and TNF-α act synergistically to increase leucocyte CD11b adhesion molecule expression in the BELFAST
I Maeve Rea1, Susan E McNerlan, Denis H Alexander
1Department of Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Science, Queens University Belfast, Belfast 9, UK. i.rea@qub.ac.uk
Abstract:
Hypertension, a key risk factor for stroke, cardiovascular disease and dementia, is associated with chronic vascular inflammation, and although poorly understood, putative mechanisms include pro-inflammatory responses induced by mechanical stretching, with cytokine release and associated up-regulated expression of adhesion molecules. Because blood pressure increases with age, we measured baseline and tumour necrosis alpha (TNF-α)-stimulated CD11b/CD18 adhesion molecule expression on leucocytes to assess any association between the two. In 38 subjects (mean age 85 years), consecutively enrolled from Belfast Elderly Longitudinal Free-Living Aging Study (BELFAST), baseline and TNF-α-stimulated CD11b/CD18 expression on separated monocytes and neutrophils increased with systolic blood pressure >120 mmHg (p = 0.05) and for lymphocytes, with diastolic blood pressure >80 mmHg (p < 0.05).These findings show increased potential stickiness of intravascular cells with increasing blood pressure which is accentuated by TNF-α, and suggest mechanistic reasons why better hypertension control is important.
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