severe or not depends not only on the strong immune activation but also on the dysfunctional endothelium, in other words, the vascular system.
The study has been published in the 'Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy Journal'. 'In our study, we investigated which immune cells are activated in severe cases and in what way the endothelium, in other words, the blood vessels, and their activation play a role in the disease progress', explained Prof.
Christine Falk, Scientist at the Hanover Medical School (MHH) and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). Many clinical symptoms, such as the destruction of blood vessels in the lungs and acute respiratory distress syndrome, pointed to an impact on the endothelium.
The endothelium is a thin layer of cells that line blood vessels, forming a barrier between blood flow and the surrounding tissues.