ABSTRACT
The interactions of cells with pericellular fibronectin matrix play critical roles in cell adhesion, migration, growth, survival, differentiation, and gene expression. This chapter discusses some of the recent findings on the signaling mechanisms involved in the cellular control of fibronectin matrix assembly, primarily focusing on the roles of integrin signaling. It describes two basic experimental methods for analyzing fibronectin matrix assembly, and discusses some of the major technical considerations in designing experiments aimed at evaluating cellular activity of fibronectin matrix assembly. Fibronectin matrix assembly is a dynamic cellular process in which the soluble dimeric fibronectin molecules are assembled into an insoluble, disulfide-bond stabilized, fibrillar polymeric matrix. The importance of integrin cytoplasmic domains in cellular control of fibronectin matrix assembly suggest that the matrix assembly process is likely to be regulated by integrin cytoplasmic domain binding proteins.
