... and pathological situations. Endothelial cells adapt to shear stress by remodeling their cytoskeletal components and subsequently by changing their shape and orientation. We demonstrate that β1 integrin activation is critically controlled during the mechanoresponse of endothelial cells to shear stress. Indeed, we...

... with surface β1 integrins or associate with the actin cytoskeleton. In addition, direct binding studies using purified merlin and paxillin domains revealed that merlin directly binds paxillin LD3 (leucine-aspartate 3) domain as well as the LD4 and LD5 domains. Together these results demonstrate that a direct...