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REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1535673
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Endothelial Injury Syndromes: Mechanisms, Markers, and Therapeutic Potential View all 7 articles
Role of the endothelial cell glycocalyx in sepsis-induced acute kidney injury
Provisionally accepted- 1 The First Clinical Medical College of China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China
- 2 Department of Critical Care Medicine, Yichang Central People’s Hospital, Yichang, Hebei Province, China
Sepsis-induced acute kidney injury (S-AKI) is a common complication of sepsis. It occurs at high incidence and is associated with a high level of mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU). The pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying S-AKI are complex, and include renal vascular endothelial cell dysfunction. The endothelial glycocalyx (EG) is a polysaccharide/protein complex located on the cell membrane at the luminal surface of vascular endothelial cells that has anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic, and endothelial protective effects. Recent studies have shown that glycocalyx damage plays a causal role in S-AKI progression. In this review, we first describe the structure, location, and basic function of the EG. Second, we analyze the underlying mechanisms of EG degradation in sepsis and S-AKI. Finally, we provide a summary of the potential therapeutic strategies that target the EG.
Keywords: glycocalyx, sepsis, endothelium, kidney, inflammation S-AKI: sepsis-induced acute kidney injury, ICUs: intensive care units, EG: endothelial glycocalyx, AKI: Acute kidney injury, HS: heparan sulfate, ICAM: intercellular adhesion molecule, VCAM: vascular cell adhesion molecule, FGF: fibroblast growth factor
Received: 27 Nov 2024; Accepted: 25 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, zhang, Qu and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xingguang Qu, The First Clinical Medical College of China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China
Gaosheng Zhou, The First Clinical Medical College of China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China
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