considered to be one of the fundamental functions of IP receptors. Furthermore, IP(-/-) mice on a high salt diet develop significantly higher levels of hypertension, cardiac fibrosis, and cardiac hypertrophy than control mice. The vasodilating and, perhaps, platelet-inhibiting effects of IP receptors likely underlie its ability suppress hypertension and protect tissues such as the heart in this model as well as the heart, brain, and gastrointestinal tract in various animal models of ischemic injury. Indeed, IP agonists are used to treat patients pathological vasoconstriction diseases. The injection of IP activators into the skin of rodents increases local capillary permeability and swelling; IP(-/-) mice fail to show this increased capillary permeability and swelling in response not only to IP activators but also in a model of carrageenan- or bradykinin-induced paw edema. IP antagonists likewise reduce experimentally-induced capillary permeability and swelling in rats. This actions is also considered a physiological function of IP receptors, but can contribute to the toxicity of IP activators in patients by inducing, for example, life-threatening pulmonary edema. IP activators inhibit the adherence of circulating platelets and leukocytes adherence to vascular endothelium thereby blocking their entry into sites of tissue disturbance. The activators also inhibit vascular smooth muscle cells from proliferation by blocking these cells' growth cycle and triggering their apoptosis (i.e. cell death). These actions, along with its anti-inflammatory effects, may underlie the ability of IP gene knockout in an ApoE(−/−) mouse model to cause an accelerated rate of developing atherosclerosis. Inflammation Mouse studies indicate that the PGI2-IP axis activates cellular signaling pathways that tend to suppress allergic inflammation. The axis inhibits bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (i.e. antigen-presenting cells that process antigen material, present it on their surfaces for delivery to T cells, and otherwise regulate innate and adaptive immune system responses) from producing pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g. IL-12, TNF-alpha, IL-1-alpha, and IL-6) while stimulating them to increase production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10. IP receptor activation of these cells also blocks their lipopolysaccharide-stimulated expression of pro-inflammatory cell surface proteins (i.e. CD86, CD40, and MHC class II molecules) that are critical for developing adaptive immune responses. IL receptor-activated bone marrow-derived dendritic cells showed a greatly reduced ability to stimulate the proliferation of T helper cell as well as the ability of these cells to produce pro-allergic cytokines (i.e. IL-5 and IL-13)s. In a mouse model of allergic inflammation, PGI2 reduced the maturation and migration of lung mature dendritic