Platelets enhance endothelial adhesiveness in high tidal volume ventilation

Although platelets induce lung inflammation, leading to acute lung injury (ALI), the extent of platelet-endothelial cell (EC) interactions remains poorly understood. Here, in a ventilation-stress model of lung inflammation, we show that platelet-EC interactions are important. We obtained freshly isolated lung endothelial cells (FLECs) from isolated, blood-perfused rat lungs exposed to ventilation at low tidal volume (LV) or stress-inducing high tidal volume (HV). Immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation studies revealed HV-induced increases in cell-surface von Willebrand factor (vWf) expression on FLEC. This increased expression was inhibited by platelet removal from the lung perfusion and by including a P-selectin-blocking antibody in the lung perfusion. The expression was also blocked in lungs from P-selectin knockout (P sel^-/-) mice perfused with autologous blood, but not with heterologous wildtype blood containing P-selectin-expressing platelets. These findings indicate that in ventilation stress, platelets transfer vWf to the EC surface and that platelet P-selectin plays a critical role in this transfer. Further evidence for such intercellular transfers was the HV-induced FLEC expressions of platelet glycoprotein 1b and of platelet P-selectin. We conclude that in ventilation stress, platelets deposit leukocyte- and platelet-binding proteins on the EC surface, thereby establishing the proinflammatory phenotype of the vascular lining.