The adhesion of circulating leukocytes to vascular endothelium is a prerequisite for their emigration to extravascular tissues. The experiments presented here demonstrate that intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) are constitutively expressed on cerebromicrovascular endothelial cell lines derived from human brain and that the expression of these molecules can be up-regulated by endothelins (ET-1, ET-2 and ET-3) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The data also indicate that ET-1 treatment induced the expression of E-selection on these cells. These findings implicate vasoactive peptides in the recruitment of blood cells at sites of inflammation.