IMR Press / FBL / Volume 23 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.2741/4616

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article

Immune response to systemic inflammation in the intestinal microcirculation

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1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS, Canada
2 Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS, Canada
3 Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS, Canada
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2018, 23(4), 782–795; https://doi.org/10.2741/4616
Published: 1 January 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innate immune mechanisms in thrombosis and vascular biology)
Abstract

Systemic inflammation is characterized by acute or chronic dysregulation of the host immune response. The intestine plays an important role in systemic inflammation. Disturbances in the intestinal microcirculation due to infiltration of immune cells during systemic inflammation can increase bacterial translocation from the gut to the circulation and aggravate the pathological condition. Therefore, the intestinal microcirculation is relevant with respect to two aspects – as pathophysiological trigger and therapeutic target in systemic inflammation. Experimental intravital microscopy represents a unique method to study the immune response in organs and tissues in vivo. Novel non-invasive imaging technologies facilitate the examination of the human microcirculation. Future developments are needed to miniaturize the imaging technologies and automate the time-consuming analyses of the in vivo data in order to make the intestinal microcirculation accessible for routine diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring.

Keywords
Inflammation
leukocyte adhesion
microcirculation
intravital microscopy
sepsis
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