News and Views abstract
Nature Cell Biology 1, E173 - E175 (1999)
doi:10.1038/15608
Unravelling the extracellular matrix
Amy Shaub1
- Amy Shaub is at the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, CB# 7090, 108 Taylor Hall, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
Correspondence to: Amy Shaub1 e-mail: akshaub@med.unc.edu
Abstract
The extracellular matrix protein fibronectin forms fibrils when in association with cells that exert tension. Cells apply enough force to stretch fibrils in vivo. Stretching of individual fibronectin molecules may reveal conformation-dependent intermolecular binding sites, contributing to the assembly of the molecules into fibrils.
