Cellular Adhesiveness and Extracellular Substrata

This chapter discusses the cellular adhesiveness and extracellular substrata. Cell adhesiveness is a fundamental cell property. It plays a role in developmental processes such as cell migration during embryogenesis and morphogenesis in response to particular extracellular matrices; it plays a role in homeostatic processes such as tissue and organ stability, thrombosis, inflammation, and wound healing; and it plays a role in the pathology of various disease states, for instance, in the invasive and metastatic behavior of malignant cells, in disorders of platelet function, and in disorders of leukocyte function. Adhesiveness is common to many different cell types under a variety of conditions, and the underlying mechanisms are analogous for active cell-substratum adhesion occurring in vitro to artificial and to model physiological substrata and in vivo to fibrinogen or fibrin deposits, to the basement membrane, and to other acellular components of the connective tissue.