ABSTRACT
It has long been suggested that the adhesion of cells to each other or to the substratum can be regulated by the cytoskeleton. Much of the evidence for this suggestion has been indirect. However, in recent years, with the identification and characterization of receptors mediating cell-cell and cell-substratum adhesion and of intracellular cytoskeletal proteins, it has become increasingly apparent that the cytoskeleton may indeed play an important role in regulating adhesive events. As discussed elsewhere in this book, several families of adhesion receptors have now been identified. These include
the cadherins, Ca2+-dependent homophilic cell-cell adhesion receptors that have an important role in tissue development,
the Ca2+-independent adhesive receptors of the immunoglobulin superfamily that are involved in cell-cell adhesion and are important in tissue development, inflammation, and hemostasis,
members of the integrin superfamily that mediate both cell-cell and cell-substratum interactions and are important in a wide variety of adhesive processes, including inflammation, hemostasis, thrombosis, and tumor metastasis,
members of the selectin superfamily that mediate interactions of blood cells with the endothelium and with each other,
miscellaneous proteins, such as the glycoprotein (gp) Ib-IX complex on platelets, a receptor that plays an important role in hemostasis and thrombosis.
