In kidney IRI, renal endothelial cells (EC) are the first site of graft injury, while neutrophils are the first line of host defense after reperfusion. The degree of renal EC damage within the graft predicts the severity of neutrophil transendothelial migration (TEM), with neutrophils in turn acting as the gate-keeper cell population by their ability to orchestrate the influx of subsequent waves of leukocytes into the graft. Therefore, EC integrity and neutrophil TEM represent one of the most promising targets to attenuate IRI and thus to ameliorate DGF (Fig 1).
