The adhesion and aggregation of platelets during hemostasis and thrombosis represents one of the best-understood examples of cell-matrix adhesion. Platelets are exposed to a wide variety of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins once blood vessels are damaged and basement membranes and interstitial ECM are exposed. Platelet adhesion to these ECM proteins involves ECM receptors familiar in other co...

Over the last 2 decades, nonlinear imaging methods such as multiharmonic imaging microscopy (MHIM) have become powerful approaches for the label-free visualization of biological structures. Multiharmonic signals are generated when an intense electromagnetic field propagates through a sample that either has a specific molecular orientation or exhibits certain physical properties. It can provide ...

Tumor development is a complex process that relies on interaction and communication between a number of cellular compartments. Much of the mass of a solid tumor is comprised of the stroma which is richly invested with extracellular matrix. Within this matrix are a host of matricellular proteins that regulate the expression and function of a myriad of proteins that regulate tumorigenic processes...

It has long been recognized that meat tenderness is related to both the components inside the muscle fibers (predominantly the myofibril) and the connective tissues surrounding the fibers (predominantly collagen). It has also been shown that the tenderness of meat increases with time of storage postmortem. Most work attempting to determine the mechanism of this postmortem tenderization has conc...

Highly ordered ring-like structures are formed via the directed assembly of lipid domains in supported bilayers, using the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin. The ability of biological molecules to guide nanoscale assembly suggests potential biomimetic approaches to nanoscale structures.

The mec-5 and mec-9 genes encode putative extracellular proteins that allow a set of six touch receptor neurons in C. elegans to respond to gentle touch. MEC-5 is a collagen made by the epidermal cells that surround the touch cells. Mutations causing touch insensitivity affect the Gly-X-Y repeats of this collagen. mec-9 produces two transcripts, the larger of which is expressed in the touch cel...

................................................................................................................................................... 1 Publications and conference presentation relevant to the thesis ........................................................... 4 Chapter 1: Literature review and study aims ................................................................................