Intestinal Microvascular Endothelial Cells (IMEC)

Microvascular endothelial cells line blood vessels and contribute to many biological processes such as angiogenesis, coagulation, trafficking of lymphocytes, and the inflammatory response.They may be functionally different from large vessel endothelium. Intestinal microvascular endothelial cells play a central part both in the normal mucosal immune system as well as in local inflammatory process.

The avilability of a reproducible and comparatively simple method to establish normal HIMEC should permit further studies on the function of intestinal endothelial cells and their putaive role in physiological and pathological events in the human gut.