Keywords:
adhesion, membrane proteins, cytoskeleton

A great deal is known about the ways in which diffusible molecules bind to receptors and trigger transductive mechanisms located in the plasma membrane. Only recently has there been a wider appreciation of the fact that contacts between cells and surfaces on which they can spread may also initiate cytoplasmic signals. This embraces cell-to-cell contact as well as adhesion to non-cellular surfaces. In the former category, signal transduction through the T-cell receptor complex (Littman, can activate adhesion based on LFA-1/ICAM-1 by a servo-motor effect (Dustin and Springer, 1989; van Seventer et al. 1990; review, Springer, 1990). Very recently, Lo et al. (1991) have demonstrated that adhesion of neutrophils to endothelium by means of E selectin (ELAM-1) generates signals responsible for increased adhesion by the LFA-l/lCAM-1 mechanism. One of the first clearly defined examples of a signal initiated by the adhesion of cells to a substratum was...

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