Trauma promotes heparan sulfate modifications and cleavage that disrupt homeostatic gene expression in microvascular endothelial cells

Heparan sulfate (HS) in the vascular endothelial glycocalyx (eGC) is a critical regulator of blood vessel homeostasis. Trauma results in HS shedding from the eGC, but the impact of trauma on HS structural modifications that could influence mechanisms of vascular injury and repair has not been evaluated. Moreover, the effect of eGC HS shedding on endothelial cell (EC) homeostasis has not been fully elucidated. The objectives of this work were to characterize the impact of trauma on HS sulfation and determine the effect of eGC HS shedding on the transcriptional landscape of vascular ECs.