Replication and innate host response of influenza A virus in lung microvascular endothelial cells: new insights into systemic infection and pathogenesis.

Though influenza A virus replication kinetics and host responses have been previously studied in umbilical vein endothelial cell or transformed endothelial cell lines, the tropism of influenza A virus including H5N1 and pandemic H1N1pdm for primary human lung microvascular endothelial cell has not been well defined. [1]. In this study we employed primary human lung microvascular endothelial cells, which are more physiologically relevant for understanding pathogenesis of influenza in the lung as to obtain a better understanding of the links of endothelial cell infection to systematic virus dissemination and multiple organ involvement in severe human influenza.