title: Cell adhesion molecules in oral mucosa.
abstract: The way in which cells communicate with each other is fundamentally important for developing and maintaining normal tissue structure and function. In order to get a better understanding of cell adhesion, researchers have long been trying to identify and characterize chemical structures at the cell surface that might participate in, or mediate, cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion. During the last decade, this has led to the identification of a number of cell-surface adhesion proteins and their ligands, which may be either proteins or carbohydrates. The LEC cell-adhesion molecule family is a group of cell-adhesion molecules with a lectinlike domain. They bind to carbohydrate structures, some of which have been identified on dendritic cells in oral epithelium. LEC cell-adhesion molecules are found on endothelial cells during inflammation and may, in such situations, be involved in the recruiting of dendritic and other inflammatory cells, thereby playing a role in the regulation of inflammatory reactions in the oral mucosa. The integrin family is another group of cell-surface adhesion molecules recently identified in oral mucosa that participate in cell-matrix and cell-cell adhesion in many important processes including wound healing, immunodefense mechanisms, and oncogenic transformation. Knowledge of the distribution of cell-adhesion molecules and their ligands and of the mechanism that controls their expression is, therefore, of great importance in understanding of the development of disease in the oral mucosa.
authors.affiliation: Royal Dental College, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dabelsteen
mesh_terms: D000943:Antigens, Differentiation; D000954:Antigens, Surface; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000276:immunology; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology; D002450:Cell Communication; D016023:Integrins; D007801:Langerhans Cells; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000943:Antigens, Differentiation; D000954:Antigens, Surface; D002241:Carbohydrates; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D016023:Integrins