Abstract
Endothelial cells (ECs) have long been implicated in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of a myriad of vascular, thrombotic, and inflammatory disorders. The prevalence of endothelial perturbation in vascular disease has underscored the need for noninvasive sensitive and specific markers to monitor endothelial status. The popularity of endothelial microparticles (EMPs) as markers of perturbed has increased because of its promising clinical applications in the area of noninvasive EC monitoring. An overview of the main aspects of endothelial dysfunction as they relate to thrombogenesis and inflammation is important to provide a background of the factors affecting EMP release and their phenotype. General properties of microparticles such as mechanisms of microparticles generation and antigenic characterization of EMP are also discussed in this chapter. EMPs have emerged as a preferred direct method for assessing EC injury in different disorders. EMP analysis could provide insight into the actual status of the endothelium in vivo by a simple blood analysis. The main challenge remains in the selection of specific and sensitive monoclonal antibodies that may yield consistent results among different laboratories. Clinical endothelial research has been hampered by the difficulty of accessing and sampling ECs in a noninvasive manner. EMPs in clinical disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and preeclampsia, inflammatory and infectious disease, autoimmune disorders, hematological disorders, and neurological disease are also discussed in this chapter.
