Abstract

Endothelial barrier dysfunction (EBD) is a major cause of various vascular diseases such as sepsis, acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) [1,2]. Current therapeutic strategies to mitigate these vascular pathologies involve administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics [3,4] and anti-cytokine antibodies [5,6] providing limited alleviation of symptoms and are clearly insufficient.