Integrins: possible functions in the adult CNS.

Integrins comprise a large family of heterodimeric proteins that mediate cell-cell and cell-extracellular-matrix adhesive connections. There is an extensive literature on their importance in neural development and cancer, but evidence for the existence of integrins in the adult CNS has emerged only recently. With growing immunohistochemical and molecular biological evidence for the presence of integrins in the adult CNS, a variety of functions from microglial migration to synaptic rearrangements can be considered for these adhesive proteins.