α6β1 Integrin and laminin E8: An increasingly complex simple story

Regulation of interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix lies at the heart of such fundamental biological problems as the generation of pattern during embryogenesis, the process of cancer metastases, organogenesis, and the redistribution of cells during inflammatory responses. In many of these processes, cells come into intimate contact with components of the basement membrane. Basement membranes (BMs) are heterogeneous, highly specialized, 100 to 200nm thick sheets of matrix interposed between all epithelia, endothelia, skeletal muscle, nerve and fat bodies, and the surrounding stroma. They are distinguished by a characteristic trilamellar morphology in the electron microscope and by a distinct molecular composition. BM functions as filter in the glomerulus, where two basement membranes are directly apposed. During development, and probably during pathological processes, cells also interact with isolated basement membrane components, that is, components not associated into an intact BM