“…Thrombin-mediated activation of cell-surface receptors, including those on endothelial cells, is pleiotropic and results in: increased cytosolic Ca 2+ , stimulation of various second messenger systems, kinase activation, induction of mitosis, and the flux of ions in and out of the cell (Bartha et al, 1989;Brock and Capasso, 1989;Garcia et al, 1995;Magazine et al, 1996;Molino et al, 1997;Pollock et al, 1988;Schini et al, 1989;Sugama and Malik, 1992;Tesfamariam et al, 1993). Thrombin receptors belong to the protease-activated receptor (PAR) family of seven-transmembrane-domain, G-protein-linked, cell-surface receptors (reviewed by Brass and Molino, 1997;Hou et al, 1998;Jamieson, 1997). To date, three members of the PAR family, PAR-1 (Rasmussen et al, 1991;Vu et al, 1991), PAR-3 (Ishihara et al, 1997) and PAR-4 (Kahn et al, 1998), have been identified as thrombin sensitive.…”