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Cell adhesion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The study of cell adhesion is part of cell biology. Since cells are often not found in isolation, rather they tend to stick to other cells or non-cellular components of their environment, a fundamental question is: what makes cells sticky? Cell adhesion generally involves protein molecules at the surface of cells, so the study of cell adhesion involves cell adhesion proteins and the molecules that they bind to.
For a cell adhesion protein like the one shown in the diagram, the intracellular domain binds to protein components of the cell's cytoskeleton. This allows for very tight adhesion. Without attachment to the cytoskeleton, a cell adhesion protein that is tightly bound to a ligand would be in danger of being hydrolyzed by extracellular hydrolytic enzymes. This will rip out the adhesion protein from the fragile cell membrane. Often the connection between the cell adhesion proteins and the cytoskeleton is not as direct as shown in the diagram. For example, cadherin cell adhesion proteins are typically coupled to the cytoskeleton by way of special linking proteins called "catenins".
- The Cell by G. Cooper (online textbook)
- Molecular Cell Biology by Lodish et al (online textbook)
- Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts et al (online textbook)
- Cell Adhesion and Extracellular Matrix - The Virtual Library of Biochemistry and Cell Biology