Adhesion in Leukocyte Homing and Differentiation

This book presents the current knowledge on the structureand function of the major families of cell adhesionmolecules, the integrins, the selectins,the immunoglobulinssuperfamily and CD44, concentrating on their role in theimmune system. Complex interactions between the members ofthese families mediate diverse adhesion functions, includingleukocyte-leukocyte interactions, lymphocyte homing,inflammation, and lymphocyte-stromal cell interactionduring homopoiesis. A great deal of emphasis is placed onthe regulatory elements that control the expression andfunction of adhesion molecules: Cytokines not only inducethe expression of certain adhesion molecules, but may alsomodify their functional status.A number of chapters discuss the migration of lymphocytesbetween hemopoietic organs such as the thymus, lymph nodes,Peyer's patches and spleen, and other chapters focus on thechanges in leukocyte migration during an inflammatoryresponse. In summary, this book introduces new aspects ofcell adhesion on the molecular and biological level.