Experts in their respective fields present papers concerned with the range of human diseases caused by defective or abnormal functioning of cell adhesion molecules. Discusses new therapeutic approaches to these maladies.

The past few years have seen considerable advances in our understanding of the molecular basis underlying cutaneous cell adhesion mechanisms. Co-authored by a number of leading experts in the field ^Cell Adhesion and Migration in Skin Disease provides a comprehensive overview of the critical role played by cell adhesion in determining the structure and function of both healthy and diseased human skin. The book is divided into three main sections, with each one addressing a principal function of adhesion molecules. The first part focuses on the epidermis, which as the skin's outermost layer, acts as the human body's primary barrier of defence. Roles played by cytoskeletal intermediate filaments and junctional complexes in cutaneous cell adhesion are emphasised with descriptions of blistering skin diseases that can arise if these molecules malfunction. The second part describes the macromolecular interactions responsible for the anchorage of cells to the underlying extracellular basement membrane. The experimental approaches detailed in the text not only reveal how the molecular components of the dermal-epidermal junction have been elucidated, but also highlight how mutations in the genes which encode these molecules are responsible for many heritable skin diseases. Leukocytes continually infiltrate the skin and patrol it for potentially harmful pathogens. Control of leukocyte adhesion to resident cells within the skin and to the extracellular matrix plays a key role in controlling these processes. These mechanisms constitute the primary focus of the final section. The pivotal role of leukocytes is examined in conjunction with the chronic inflammatory diseases which arise when components of the skin's finely tuned defence strategy go awry and the potential for these anomalies to be pinpointed as important immunotherapeutic targets for skin diseases.

Cell Adhesion Molecules: Implications in Neurological Diseases contains review articles on recent developments in the field of neural cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). The main focus is on the role of cell adhesion molecules in various neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. This perspective has been essentially overlooked in recently published books on neural CAMs. In addition, the contributors cover many newly identified cell adhesion molecules and some that have not received much attention in recent years. This books fills an important gap in the currently available literature. ​

Provides an overview of the structure, transcription regulation and binding characteristics of cellular adhesion molecules and their ligands in the maintenance of function, immunological reactions and inflammatory processes with organ systems. The text examines the role of adhesion molecules in biological processes such as morphogenesis, blood coagulation, tumour metastasis, bone tissue remodelling and transplant rejection.

The aim of "The Adhesive Interaction of Cells" has been to assemble a series of reviews by leading international experts embracing many of the most important recent developments in this rapidly expanding field. The purpose of all biological research is to understand the form and function of living organisms and, by comprehending the normal, to find explanations and remedies for the abnormal and for disease conditions. The molecules involved in cell adhesion are of fundamental importance to the structure and function of all multicellular organisms. In this book, the contributors focus on the systems of vertebrates, especially mammals, since these are most relevant to human disease. It would have been equally possible to concentrate on developmental processes and adhesion in lower organisms. A major function of adhesion molecules is to bind cells to each other or to the extracellular matrix, but they are much more than "glue". Adhesions in animal tissues must be dynamic-forming, persisting, or declining in regulated fashion- to facilitate the mobility and turnover of tissue cells. Moreover, the majority of adhesion molecules are transmembrane molecules and thus provide links between the cells and their surroundings. This gives rise to another major function of adhesion molecules, the capacity to transduce signals across the hydrophobic barrier imposed by the plasma membrane. Such signal transduction is crucially important to many aspects of cellular function including the regulation of cell motility, gene expression, and differentiation. The work in this book progresses through four sections. Part I discusses the four major families of adhesion molecules themselves, the integrins (Green and Humphries), the cadherins (Stappert and Kemler), the selectins (Tedder et al.) and the immunoglobulin superfamily (Simmons); part 2 considers junctional complexes involved in cell interactions: focal adhesions and adherens junctions (Ben Ze'ev), desmosomes (Garrod et al.), and tight junctions (Citi and Cordenonsi). The signaling role of adhesion molecules is the focus of part 3, through integrins and the extracellular matrix (Edwards and Streuli), through platelet adhesion (Du and Ginsberg), and in the nervous system (Hemperley). In part 4, the aim is to show how adhesive phenomena contribute to important aspects of cell behavior and human health. Leukocyte trafficking (Haskard et al.), cancer metastasis (Marshall and Hart), cell migration (Paleck et al.), and implantation and placentation (Damsky et al.) are the topics considered in depth. The different sections are, of course, not mutually exclusive: it is both undesirable and impossible to separate structure from function when considering cell adhesion. Each chapter has its unique features, but some overlap is both invevitable and valuable since it provides different perspectives on closely related topics. We hope that the whole contributes a valuable and stimulating consideration of this important topic.

Begins a series for clinicians, graduate students, and researchers in academia, regulatory agencies, or industry, offering monographs both on classes of adhesion molecules and on the function of such molecules in particular systems. Here the emphasis is on the clinical evaluation of these molecules, particularly as novel biochemical and genetic markers to define tumor differentiation based on functional and morphological assessment, and also their potential use as targets for biological therapy. Includes ten pages of color plates. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR