Abstract

This essay focuses on nine important lessons learned during more than thirty years of endothelial research. They include: the danger of hiding behind a word, the confusion generated by abbreviations, the need to define the physiological role of the response studied, the local role of endothelium- dependent responses, the strength of pharmacological analyses, endothelial dysfunction as consequence and cause of disease, the importance of rigorous protocols, the primacy of in vivo studies and the importance of serendipity.

Keywords: Endothelium-dependent hyperpolarization, endothelium-derived nitric oxide, endothelium-derived contracting factors, cyclooxygenase, intact organism, serendipity, reproducibility, soluble guanylyl cyclase.

Graphical Abstract