Heterogeneity of Focal Adhesions and Focal Contacts in Motile Fibroblastsстатья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 28 июня 2018 г.
Аннотация:Cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion is an important property of virtually all cells in multicellular
organisms. Cell-ECM adhesion studies, therefore, are very significant both for biology and medicine. Over
the last three decades, biomedical studies resulted in a tremendous advance in our understanding of the
molecular basis and functions of cell-ECM adhesion. Based on morphological and molecular criteria,
several different types of model cell-ECM adhesion structures including focal adhesions, focal complexes,
fibrillar adhesions, podosomes, and three-dimensional matrix adhesions have been described. All the subcellular
structures that mediate cell-ECM adhesion are quite heterogeneous, often varying in size, shape,
distribution, dynamics, and, to a certain extent, molecular constituents. The morphological “plasticity” of
cell-ECM adhesion perhaps reflects the needs of cells to sense, adapt, and respond to a variety of extracellular
environments. In addition, cell type (e.g., differentiation status, oncogenic transformation, etc.) often
exerts marked influence on the structure of cell-ECM adhesions. Although molecular, genetic, biochemical,
and structural studies provide important maps or “snapshots” of cell-ECM adhesions, the area of
research that is equally valuable is to study the heterogeneity of FA subpopulations within cells. Recently
time-lapse observations on the FA dynamics become feasible, and behavior of individual FA gives additional
information on cell-ECM interactions. Here we describe a robust method of labeling of FA using
plasmids with fluorescent markers for paxillin and vinculin and quantifying the morphological and dynamical
parameters of FA.