Role of Adenosine in Response to Vascular Inflammation

The first known function of adenosine was as a central factor in the biochemistry of energy production. Perhaps as a result of that role, it also evolved as a signaling molecule that links metabolic stress and tissue damage to the activation of 4 G protein coupled adenosine receptors. An early appreciation of the physiology of adenosine preceded by many decades the discovery of the cell biology of adenosine signaling. The first recognized physiological activity of adenosine was “disturbance of the heart beat” initially described in a remarkably elegant study for the year 1929, conducted at the University of Cambridge by Drury and Szent-Gyorgyi.1 This preceded by 34 years the realization, first articulated by Robert Berne, that adenosine is responsible for the “metabolic regulation of coronary blood flow.”2 Once adenosine receptors were identified in the 1980's and 1990's and selective agonists and antagonists became available, rapid progress was made in pinpointing the identity and function of adenosine …