Binding of cells of Staphylococcus aureus to fibronectin has been proposed as a mechanism of bacterial adhesion to host tissues. In this study, we have attempted to define the role of a recently identified fibronectin receptor in the adhesion of staphylococcal cells to fibronectin-containing substrates by using different receptor analogs as potential inhibitors of bacterial adherence. The resul...

Many factors influence the assembly of fibronectin into an insoluble fibrillar extracellular matrix. Previous work demonstrated that one component in serum that promotes the assembly of fibronectin is lysophosphatidic acid (Zhang, Q., W.J. Checovich, D.M. Peters, R.M. Albrecht, and D.F. Mosher. 1994. J. Cell Biol. 127:1447-1459). Here we show that C3 transferase, an inhibitor of the low molecul...

Fibronectin matrix assembly is a cell-dependent process which is upregulated in tissues at various times during development and wound repair to support the functions of cell adhesion, migration, and differentiation. Previous studies have demonstrated that the alpha 5 beta 1 integrin and fibronectin's amino terminus and III-1 module are important in fibronectin polymerization. We have recently s...

Abstrac I: Seventy-kilodalton amino-terminal and 180-kDa cell-binding fibronectin fragments were used to determine which fibronectin domains support soluble gelatin interactions with macrophages. At each time measured, intact and 180-kDa fihronectm supported significantly larger quantities of cell-associated gelatin than control levels (P < 0.05). Throughout the time course fibronectin supporte...

The binding of platelets to components in the subendothelial matrix is an initial event in hemostasis and thrombosis. The glycoprotein components of the matrix are considered important in this interaction. Of these, collagen binds and activates platelets and induces their aggregation. In this study we demonstrate that substrate-bound laminin causes time- and concentration-dependent adherence of...

Studies have established that cryoprecipitates of the plasma of tumor patients contain a biological activity enhancing morphological cell transformation (transformation-enhancing factor; TEF) in cultures of chicken embryo fibroblasts infected with temperature-sensitive mutants of Rous sarcoma virus. We report here that similar TEF activity is effected by defined fragments of human plasma fibron...

Invasive lung disease caused by Aspergillus species is a potentially fatal infection in immunocompromised patients. The adhesion of Aspergillus fumigatus conidia to proteins in the basal lamina is thought to be an initial step in the development of invasive aspergillosis. The purpose of this study was to determine the mechanism of adhesion of A. fumigatus conidiospores to basal-lamina proteins ...