Vascular Endothelial Cell-Synthesized Extracellular Matrices as Attachment Substrates In Vitro

Abstract

It has become widely held that the extracellular matrix exerts significant effects on the behavior of vascular and nonvascular cells during embryogenesis, wound healing, and in association with tumor growth [1, 2, 7–11, 17, 22]. In particular, soluble as well as insoluble matrix components alter the shape of living cells, their migratory and reproductive capacitance, as well as their adhesive properties [3–6, 12, 16, 19, 21]. To address the role the molecules of the extracellular compartment play in these events, model systems have been developed. A considerable effort has been focused on revealing the domain structure and function of the matrix molecules and their respective membrane receptors, which are held responsible for signal transduction [5, 13-15, 18, 20]. It is equally important to understand matrix effects on cell behavior to reveal the matrix’ linkage(s) with the mechanochemical effector molecules [11]. For the most part, these aspects of the extracellular-cytoplasmic signal transduction pathway remain largely underexplored and unresolved.