The body is under constant attack from pathogens trying to slip by our immune defence. If the barrier is breached, invading pathogens enter the tissues and cause inflammation. During this process neutrophils, constituting the first line of defence, leave the bloodstream and seek out and kill the invading pathogens. The mechanisms leading to activation of receptors on neutrophils must be closely...

Mechanical forces are crucial to the regulation of cell and tissue morphology and function. At the cellular level, forces influence cytoskeletal organization, gene expression, proliferation, and survival. Integrin-mediated adhesions are intrinsically mechanosensitive and a large body of data implicates integrins in sensing mechanical forces. We review the relationship between integrins and mech...

Integrins are major mediators of cancer cell adhesion to extracellular matrix. Through this interaction, integrins play critical roles in cell migration, invasion, metastasis, and resistance to apoptosis during tumor progression. Recent studies highlight the importance of integrin trafficking, endocytosis and recycling, for the functions of integrins in cancer cells. Understanding the molecular...

This review will briefly describe integrin function, address why integrins are attractive targets for chemotherapeutic drug design, and discuss some ongoing studies aimed at inhibiting integrin activity. Integrins are cell surface heterodimeric receptors. They modulate many cellular processes including: growth, death (apoptosis), adhesion, migration, and invasion by activating several signaling...

In this article I will discuss the notion that many integrins have similar functions in cell spreading, organization of the cytoskeleton and intracellular signalling. Most of these functions are transmitted through the cytoplasmic domains of integrin beta-subunits. These parts are also quite conserved between most integrins. I will discuss, what is known about the molecules binding to these par...

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