Vascular Endothelial Cell Biology: an Update

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Jingyan Han

Boston University

Dr. Jingyan Han is an assistant professor and independent principal investigator leading a vascular biological research lab at Boston University School of Medicine. From the very beginning of her research training, her main research interests have been in vascular endothelial biology and cardiovascular pathophysiology. She is dedicated to studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling the function and integrity of vascular endothelial cells, and their contribution to the pathogenesis of vascular diseases including acute lung injury in sepsis, and atherosclerosis associated with hyperlipidemia, aging, and chronic alcohol abuse. Her research group continues to investigate arterial endothelial dysfunction in murine models of cardiovascular diseases with a particular emphasis on thiol redox dependent mechanisms. Accurate evaluation of vascular endothelial function and barrier integrity particularly in, in vivo animal models is essential for cardiovascular research. Collaborating with research experts in optical coherence tomography, she developed a non-invasive method to evaluate in vivo vascular endothelial cell function by measuring flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) of murine femoral artery, which is analogues to FMD test in humans, a gold standard for clinical assessment of vascular endothelial function. All her research projects are funded by National Institute of Health, the American Heart Association (AHA) (Predoctoral fellowship, Scientist Development Grant).

Collection Overview

It is estimated that 17.9 million people worldwide die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) each year. As the number one cause of morbidity and mortality, CVDs are the priority in biomedical research. Vascular endothelium, an inner cellular lining of cardiovascular system forms an interface between blood and vessels to sense and transduce biochemical and mechanical signals in circulation, thereby mediating various vascular responses. It thus plays a central role in maintaining vascular homeostasis, and dysfunction of which is a key early event triggering the pathogenesis of CVDs. Rigorous experimental approaches to study vascular endothelial biology allow to better understand the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of CVDs. The goal of this special Methods Collection is to share the established or novel methods of studying endothelial function/dysfunction in laboratory settings in the cardiovascular research community. Topics for submission to this collection may include, but not limited to the following:

In vitro and In vivo methods of assessing cardiovascular endothelial function
Isolation and culture of endothelial cells from animal models of CVDs
Differentiating human-derived inducible pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) into specialized endothelial cells