▪ Abstract Significant advances have been made in the application of genetics to probe the
functions of basement membrane laminins. These studies have shown that different laminin …

Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) is a critical process in embryonic development in
which epithelial cells undergo a transdifferentiation into mesenchymal cells. This process is …

Cellular polarization involves the generation of asymmetry along an intracellular axis. In a
multicellular tissue, the asymmetry of individual cells must conform to the overlying …

In nonneuronal cells, the cell surface protein dystroglycan links the intracellular cytoskeleton
(via dystrophin or utrophin) to the extracellular matrix (via laminin, agrin, or perlecan) …

Polymerization of the ECM proteins fibronectin and laminin has been shown to take place in
close vicinity to the cell surface and be facilitated by β 1 integrins (Lohikangas, L., Gullberg …

Mutations of different components of the dystrophin–glycoprotein complex (DGC) cause
muscular dystrophies that vary in terms of severity, age of onset, and selective involvement …

Dystrophin is a 427 kDa sub-membrane cytoskeletal protein, associated with the inner
surface membrane and incorporated in a large macromolecular complex of proteins, the …

The dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC) 1 is a multimeric transmembrane protein
complex first isolated from skeletal muscle membranes (1). The central protein of the DGC is …

The mechanisms that regulate the formation of multinucleated muscle fibers from
mononucleated myoblasts are not well understood. We show here that extracellular matrix …

Perlecan, a ubiquitous basement membrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, plays key roles
in blood vessel growth and structural integrity. We discovered that the C terminus of …