Endothelial heterogeneity and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: a paradigm for the pathogenesis of vascular disorders

Abstract

Vascular disorders comprise a wide range of diverse disease entities. Correspondingly, vessels, and even more so the endothelial which line them, show a remarkable extent of heterogeneous differentiation, e.g. between the blood vascular and lymphatic systems, along the length of the vascular trees, and in the microvascular beds of various organs. The most important morphologic criterion to discriminate between endothelia is continuity (continuous endothelial cell layer and well-formed basement membrane) versus discontinuity (intra- or intercellular gaps and/or reduced or missing basement membrane). Most blood vascular endothelia are of the continuous type, while most sinusoidal and lymphatic endothelia are discontinuous by these criteria. Antigen expression corroborates these morphologic data in that CD31, CD34, and 1F10 antigen are exclusively expressed in continuous endothelia, while MS-1 antigen is preferentially expressed in non-continuous sinusoidal endothelia. In contrast, no specific marker has as yet been described for lymphatic endothelia. Endothelial heterogeneity substantially contributes to the pathogenesis of vascular disorders. For example, in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome the same infectious agent may cause either bacillary angiomatosis (a lobular capillary proliferation) or peliosis (sinusoidal dilatation, endothelial denudation, and development of blood-filled cysts) depending on whether the affected organs have predominantly continuous endothelia or noncontinuous sinusoidal endothelia. Moreover, in Kaposi's sarcoma, it is still an open question of whether the lesion is derived from blood vascular or lymphatic endothelia (Kaposi's sarcoma cells in situ do not express the von Willebrand factor+, PAL-E+, 1F10+ phenotype of mature, resting blood vascular endothelia). It is also unresolved how endothelia of either type may be differentially induced to dedifferentiate and how they are recruited into the lesion. Clearly, knowledge about endothelial heterogeneity is still too incomplete to identify the actual mechanisms and molecules that govern the pathogenesis of vascular disorders (including still others than those mentioned here such as atherosclerosis, diabetic angiopathy, and rheumatoid arthritis) affecting distinct endothelia. Further efforts in antigenic phenotyping and in cell and molecular biology of heterogeneously differentiated endothelia should be made to improve this state of affairs.