Analysis of molecular switch between leukocyte and substrate adhesion in bone marrow endothelial cells

Endothelial cell damage is critical to understand since its presence in the entire body makes the damage widespread instead of being localized. Being a major component of stem cell niche in bone marrow, deems it essential to gain knowledge of the damage to endothelium associated with bone marrow. Since radiation exposure has become common to numerous therapeutic modalities, its effects on bone marrow and its endothelial cells are crucial to understand.

Microarray analysis was performed on irradiated human bone marrow endothelial cells (hBMECs) with and without prior treatment with radioprotectant amifostine to assess the effects of radiation on signalling pathways and the subsequent changes in pathways when treated with radioprotectant prior to radiation exposure.

It was seen that adhesion pathways that were usually inactivated under normal circumstances were stimulated post radiation. However, where in the case of radiation exposure, these adhesion pathways included leukocyte adhesion and migration; in the case of radioprotected conditions the pathways revolve around cell-substrate adhesion and cell spreading. Genes like ROCK1, FLNA, RAC1, PRKCZ and MAP3K8 were seen to regulate the molecular switch between leukocyte-cell adhesion to cell-substrate adhesion.

Our study demonstrated that irradiated endothelium supports leukocyte adhesion and migration but shifts to substrate adhesion dependent cell spreading under radioprotected conditions in order to repair the monolayer damage from the radiation. The genes responsible for the shift were identified and can be employed to manipulate cell adhesion characteristics for the treatment of diseases caused by radiation or inflammation.