Human vascular endothelial cells express pattern recognition receptors for fungal glucans which stimulates nuclear factor kappaB activation and interleukin 8 production. Winner of the Best Paper Award from the Gold Medal Forum.

Fungal cell wall glucans nonspecifically stimulate various aspects of innate immunity via interaction with membrane receptors on macrophages, neutrophils, and natural killer cells. We investigated the binding of water-soluble glucans in primary cultures of normal human coronary or dermal vascular endothelial cells (VECs). Membranes from VECs exhibited saturable binding.