Polarized plasma membrane domains in cultured endothelial cells.

To determine whether distinct plasma membrane domains exist in endothelial cells, we infected monolayer cultures of macro- and microvascular endothelial cells with enveloped RNA viruses known to bud selectively from either the apical or basal surface in polarized epithelial cells. We found that vesicular stomatitis (VSV) and Sendai virus emerge asymmetrically from cultured endothelial cells. This provides direct evidence for the existence of polarized plasma membrane domains in vascular endothelial cells.