Expression of Fibronectins by Cells in Culture

Abstract

Studies of FN in vivo usually do not allow determination of the sources(s) of the FNs detected. Analyses of FN in cell cultures can obviously be performed using the same immunolocalization techniques applied to FN in tissue sections (Sections 2.4. and 3.3) and the various quantitative immunoassays (Sections 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7) used in studies of FN in body fluids (Section 3.2) but also allow application of other methods. Tissue culture readily lends itself to investigations of the biosynthesis of FN by identified cell types, allowing proof of their ability to synthesize FN and analyses of the type of FN synthesized and of its fate (secretion as a soluble molecule, or incorporation into an insoluble matrix).