Integrin's new partner

Inside the Cell: Integrins as New Governors of Nuclear Alterations?

Cancer cell migration is a complex process that requires coordinated structural changes and signals in multiple cellular compartments. The nucleus is the biggest and stiffest organelle of the cell and might alter its physical properties to allow cancer cell movement. Integrins are transmembrane receptors that mediate cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions, which regulate numerous ...

Neurobiology: New Connections between Integrins and Axon Guidance

Axon guidance molecules such as netrins, semaphorins, Slits and ephrins provide the cues required for accurate patterning of axonal projections in the nervous system. Recent reports have described multiple paradigms by which these molecules interact with integrin adhesion receptors in and outside the neuronal tissues.

CD146: a new partner for VEGFR2.

Arbiser JL. Efficacy of topical application of eosin for ulcer-ated hemangiomas.macologic blockade of Angiopoietin-2 is efficacious against model hemangiomas in mice. In this issue of Blood, Jiang et al identify the cell adhesion molecule CD146 as novel co-receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2). 1 T he cell adhesion molecule CD146 was first described in 1987 because...

Neuroblastoma Integrins

Integrins make a choice

Integrins make a choice ignaling researchers have only a few factors with which to explain a whole lot of biology. On page 407, Goel et al. describe how two integrin variants channel the actions of a single factor, insulin-like growth factor (IGF), into two distinct pathways that induce either adhesion or proliferation. The ␤ 1A integrin variant was known to be associated with proliferation and...