In vitro and in vivo evidence indicates that circulating platelets affect both vascular integrity and hemostasis. How platelets enhance the permeability barrier of the vascular endothelium is not well understood. We measured the effect of isolated human platelets on human pulmonary artery endothelial cell (EC) barrier integrity by monitoring transmonolayer electrical resistance. EC barrier function was significantly increased by the addition of platelets (ϳ40% maximum, 2.5 ϫ 10 6 platelets/ml). Platelet supernatants, derived from 2.5 ϫ 10 6 platelets/ml, reproduced the barrier enhancement and reversed the barrier dysfunction produced by the edemagenic agonist thrombin, which implicates a soluble barrier-promoting factor. The barrier-enhancing effect of platelet supernatants was heat stable but was attenuated by either charcoal delipidation (suggesting a vasoactive lipid mediator) or pertussis toxin, implying involvement of a G i␣-coupled receptor signal transduction pathway. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a sphingolipid that is released from activated platelets, is known to ligate G protein-coupled EC differentiation gene (EDG) receptors, increase EC electrical resistance, and reorganize the actin cytoskeleton (Garcia JG, Liu F, Verin AD, Birukova A, Dechert MA, Gerthoffer WT, Bamberg JR, and English D. J Clin Invest 108: [689][690][691][692][693][694][695][696][697][698][699][700][701] 2001). Infection of EC with an adenoviral vector expressing an antisense oligonucleotide directed against EDG-1 but not infection with control vector attenuated the barrier-enhancing effect of both platelet supernatants and S1P. These results indicate that a major physiologically relevant vascular barrier-protective mediator produced by human platelets is S1P. endothelium; lung; vasculature; injury; G protein; differentiation; cell differentiating gene THE VASCULAR ENDOTHELIUM IS a biologically complex tissue that forms a semipermeable barrier between the intravascular fluid compartment and the interstitium of various organs. Integrity of the endothelial cell (EC) monolayer is essential for homeostasis, and perturbations of the barrier function of the endothelium are now recognized as a cardinal feature of diverse and important pathobiological processes including acute lung injury and atherogenesis. The lung vasculature contains an enormous surface area and is particularly sensitive to the dynamic features of endothelial barrier dysregulation, where increased vascular permeability leads to exudation of fluid and solutes from the intravascular space into the pulmonary interstitium. Extensive increases in lung vascular permeability result in flooding of the alveolar air spaces (pulmonary edema), which is the hallmark pathophysiological derangement of the adult respiratory distress syndrome. Circulating blood platelets have been noted for many decades to be essential to the maintenance of the endothelium as a semipermeable barrier. In vitro and in vivo models have described profound defects in EC barrier function after perfusion wit...