Roles of transient receptor potential channels in regulation of vascular and epithelial barriers

ABSTRACT

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a ubiquitously expressed multi-family group of cation channels that are critical to signaling events in many tissues. Their roles have been documented in many physiologic and pathologic conditions. Nevertheless, direct studies of their roles in maintain barrier function in endothelial and epithelia are relatively infrequent. This seems somewhat surprising considering that calcium ion concentrations are known to regulate barrier function. This short review provides an introduction to TRP channels and reviews some of the work in which investigators directly studied the role of TRP channels in endothelial permeability to electric current, solute, or leukocytes during the inflammatory response.

KEYWORDS:

• calcium signaling
• endothelium
• epithelium
• junctions
• permeability
• TRP channels

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01 HL046489 and R37 HL064774 to WAM) and Predoctoral fellowships from the American Heart Association (12PRE9330014 and 14PRE18550021 to EWW).