Thy-1, a cell adhesion molecule abundantly expressed in mammalian neurons, binds to a β
3-containing integrin on astrocytes and thereby stimulates the assembly of focal adhesions
and stress fibers. Such events lead to morphological changes in astrocytes that resemble
those occurring upon injury in the brain. Extracellular matrix proteins, typical integrin ligands,
bind to integrins and promote receptor clustering as well as signal transduction events that
involve small G proteins and cytoskeletal changes. Here we investigated the possibility that …