BIOL 311 Lecture 14: Extracellular Matrix
Document Summary
Ecm: diverse family of molecules, typically in the extracellular environment that are secreted by cells. General purposes: cell adhesion, cell to cell specificity, provide barriers (ex. basal lamina) ~ often studied for topical treatment of melanoma, cell differentiation, tendons ~ type of emc. No way to tissue engineer on a transplantable basis: charged surfaces ~ can bind with other things (ex. growth factor, integrin receptors ~ important with signaling and adhesion. Clinical aspects: drugs: synvase 1 ~ injection into knee, from chickens, tumor microenvironment: anything that"s around the tumor that influences its behavior. Studies focus on how changes in the ecm affect. Cryopellet system: shoots out pellets onto tumors and freezes them to the tumor facilitate killing. Allows us to determine how the ecm influences cancer cell death: hescs: feeder layers required. May introduce animal proteins to hesc which is bad. To fix this, feeder cell-free plates are being developed: magnetic levitations: related to hescs.
