Cloning and expression kinetics of porcine vascular cell adhesion molecule.

Human vascular cell adhesion molecule is believed to play a key role in recruiting leukocytes to sites of injury. Here we report the identification of a homologous molecule in the pig which has five Ig domains and an overall 77% homology with the human protein. The expression of this protein was also characterised on porcine endothelial cells. Like the human adhesion molecule, the porcine protein could be induced by LPS, TNF and IL-1 alpha, although differences were noted in the kinetics of expression.