images by Wikimedia Commons
In Cellular Biology and Biochemistry earlier this week, my lecturer showed us a video from Harvard Web, seen here. This video of the life inside a cell, integrins are mentioned.
He did not go into depth about what they are or what they do, but he said enough to attract my attention. Integrins are transmembrane proteins which have adhesive properties.
The family of proteins is large and includes proteins which attach cells to extracellular matrix proteins, to ligands or to other cells. One can suffer a genetic disease which severely decreases the amount of a particular integrin (LAD), which leads to their inability to gather granulocytes in order to respond to bacterial infections, and thus have recurrent infections.
Sources: Wikipeda & BME
