Research

A common observation in patients who develop atherosclerosis is that plaques often occur in specific areas of blood vessels such as the coronary arteries, the carotid arteries, and the iliac arteries. These vessels are often referred to as atheroprone vessels. These vessels are similar in that they all display complex and irregular hemodynamics. It is believed that the blood flow patterns within these vessels are a main culprit for the development of atherosclerotic lesions, causing changes in the tissue such as gene up/down regulation. However, to what extent is the glycocalyx responsible for these occurrences?

The dysfunction of the glycocalyx in athero-prone regions in conjunction with the rising popularity of nano-scale therapeutics points to a possibility of a nanoparticle based glycocalyx treatment. The glycocalyx has a pore size cutoff of 7nm under healthy conditions, which become larger when its integrity is compromised. Also when the glycocalyx is shed there may be more receptors exposed to the bloodflow. By utilizing circulating nanoparticles we aim to target particles to specific regions undergoing atherogenesis to prevent further damage.  So far we have shown that the glycocalyx plays a role in 10nm sized polymer coated nanosphere uptake, visualized by fluorescently tagging components of the layer and particles. 

Over the past several decades, it has been shown that the development of atherosclerosis, which had widely been associated as a consequence of high lipid levels, is, at least in some part, an inflammatory process. These discoveries have led to investigations on the effects of inflammation on the glycocalyx and found that inflammation may lead to degradation of the endothelial glycocalyx. The Ebong lab would like to further investigate inflammation and its effect on the glycocalyx by using high resolution imaging to determine the detailed structure of the glycocalyx pre- and post-inflammation.