Nervous tissue cell adhesion

Adhesion molecules are indispensable components of nervous tissue. They adhere cell membranes to each other with varying degrees of strength and translate adhesion into cellular responses via signal-transduction pathways (see, for example, [45]). The major classes of adhesion molecules, the integrins, IgCAMs and cadherins, act cooperatively [46] and in concert to coordinate brain development and maturation and, in adulthood, to maintain the normal tissue architecture. 

McKenzie et al. [25] MW CNT, purified, different diameter Astrocytes (cells which are responsible for reduction of nervous tissue damages) -contact with CNT surface Normal proliferation, adhesion and functional activity on tubes, especially with a diameter less than 100 nm... 

Sphingosine-based lipids are not present just in the nervous system. They are components of the plasma membranes of most cells and are involved in regulation of cell growth, cell-to-cell adhesion, and transmission of signals from an outside stimulus to the interior of the cell. The study of these lipids has been complicated by the fact that they exist in over 100 forms in mammalian tissues. 

The Ig-superfamily contains many proteins involved in immune recognition such as products of the MHC complex and accessory molecules [53]. In addition there are ten or more members associated mainly with nervous tissues in mature animals and several others in non-nervous tissue that are important factors in cell-cell and cell-substratum adhesion in non-immune cells. See [54] and [55] for detailed discussion of other aspects of Ig-superfamily glycoproteins. All of the cell adhesion glycoproteins in the family contain a variable number of Ig-like domains of about one hundred amino-acid residues, usually but not always defined within a pair of disulfide-bonded cysteine residues, and of the C2 type fold. In many cases the molecules contain variable numbers of another type of modular sequence known as the fibronectin type III repeat, sinee it was discovered in fibroneetin. In the following discussion, some principles of the structure and functions of this large family of cell adhesion molecules will be considered with particular emphasis on the interplay between different members in adhesion and modulation of adhesive interactions by carbohydrates. 

N-CAM the prototype adhesion molecule of the immunoglobulin superfamily N-CAM was first identified in chick embryo nervous tissue using an antibody that specifically inhibited the re-aggregation of dissociated nerve cells [56,57]. Subsequently, the antibodies were shown to alter the normal patterns of differentiation in the chick embryo, to inhibit the bundling of neurites into nerve fascicules and to prevent the... 

Cell adhesion and recognition mechanisms in the nervous tissue... 

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