The migration of leukocytes through the endothelium to sites of infection or inflammation is a key process for the maintenance of physiological defense mechanisms. When this process is dis-regulated and becomes chronic, inflammatory diseases such as arteriosclerosis and arthritis manifest. The steps in leukocyte transmigration (TM) 5 are initiated though activation of the endothelial cells (ECs) by cytokines such as TNF-␣, interleukin-1, and interleukin-6. The selectins initiate the rolling and tethering of leukocytes to the endothelium. This step permits the engagement between  2 and  1 integrins with intercellular cell adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM-1) to allow firm adhesion and spreading of leukocytes. ECs express low levels of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1, but cytokine stimulation elevates the expression of these receptors on ECs. The migration of leukocytes through the EC barrier involves platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 and junctional adhesion molecules. Finally, proteolytic degradation of the basement membrane extracellular matrix by metalloproteinases (MPs) in particular is required to promote extravasation (reviewed in Refs. 1 and 2).Although ICAM-1, VCAM-1, and platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 play an important role in in vivo and in vitro experimental models of TM (1-4), there is little data on the mechanistic role of the individual adhesion molecules. ICAM-1 comprises of five immunoglobulin-like motifs on the extracellular surface, followed by a stem, a transmembrane domain, and a short cytoplasmic tail (5). The cytoplasmic tail contains three tyrosine residues, two of which become phosphorylated at positions 485 and 474 upon ligation to modulate ICAM-1 function (6, 7). The role of these residues in leukocyteendothelial migration has not yet been defined.Proteolysis is an important step during and after transmigration (8, 9), as degradation of the basement membrane and matrix of the media (of larger vessels) or stroma is required. The zinc-dependent MPs belonging to the metzincin family possess a highly conserved catalytic domain, yet have an enormous * This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grant PO1ES011860, the Jewish Hospital Foundation, Louisville (to S. E. D.), and an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Award (to S. D. S.) from the Ohio Valley Affiliate. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.