[Regulation of adhesion molecules by calcium].

Adhesion molecules play a major role in many biological and pathological processes and are essential to the development and construction of tissue architecture. Cadherins are a family of membrance receptors that mediate calcium-dependent homophilic cell-cell adhesion. Secretins is also known to require calcium to function as an adhesion molecule, whereas integrin needs cation including calcium to stabilize its alpha-subunit to bind to its counterpart. Of interest, it was reported that intracellular calcium regulates cellular functions by affecting the expression of adhesion molecule in plasma membrane.