Figure 4.

Illustration of the forces that drive vascular permeability and their relationship with the endothelial glycocalyx. Under non-pathological conditions, the intact endothelial glycocalyx contributes significantly to the vascular permeability process as a physical and electrostatic barrier. Although the filtering of molecules is predominantly a function of cell-cell adherens junctions and paracellular tight junctions, the negatively charged bush-like structure of the glycocalyx, prevents the extravasation of macromolecules greater than approximately 70 kDa, as well as that of cationic molecules.