title: The Endothelium Solves Problems That Endothelial Cells Do Not Know Exist.
abstract: The endothelium is the single layer of cells that lines the entire cardiovascular system and regulates vascular tone and blood-tissue exchange, recruits blood cells, modulates blood clotting, and determines the formation of new blood vessels. To control each function, the endothelium uses a remarkable sensory capability to continuously monitor vanishingly small changes in the concentrations of many simultaneously arriving extracellular activators that each provides cues to the physiological state. Here we suggest that the extraordinary sensory capabilities of the endothelium do not come from single cells but from the combined activity of a large number of endothelial cells. Each cell has a limited, but distinctive, sensory capacity and shares information with neighbours so that sensing is distributed among cells. Communication of information among connected cells provides system-level sensing substantially greater than the capabilities of any single cell and, as a collective, the endothelium solves sensory problems too complex for any single cell.
authors.affiliation: Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, SIPBS Building, 161 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G4 0RE, UK. Electronic address: john.mccarron@strath.ac.uk.
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: McCarron
authors.affiliation: Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, SIPBS Building, 161 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G4 0RE, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, SIPBS Building, 161 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G4 0RE, UK.
authors.forename: Calum
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002450:Cell Communication; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium