The integrins

Integrins and the myocardium.

Extracellular matrix provides a structural, chemical, and mechanical substrate that is essential in cardiac development, growth, and responses to pathophysiological signals. Transmembrane receptors termed integrins provide a dynamic interaction of environmental cues and intracellular events. Integrins orchestrate multiple functions in the intact organism including organogenesis, regulation of g...

The biology of integrins.

Adhesion molecules have traditionally been thought of simply as receptors that permit anchorage to other cells or to the underlying extracellular matrix (ECM). However, within the past decade it has become apparent that adhesion molecules such as integrins mediate critical cytosolic signaling events that have a dramatic impact upon cell proliferation, survival, and motility. Integrins act to re...

Integrins anchor the invasive machinery.

Cell invasion through the basement membrane, a process important for both development and disease pathogenesis, depends on an interplay of adhesive, force transducing, proteolytic, and chemotactic machineries. The mechanisms whereby these different processes are integrated on the cellular level have remained elusive. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Sherwood and coworkers now identify integ...

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...