Intracellular Communication

In order for multicellular animals to evolve from unicellular ones, their cells must learn how to “communicate” with other nearby and distant cells. The regulation of the proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation of specialized cells (tissue homeostasis) as well as the evolution of organs and grou**s of specialized cells within organs (tissues) depended on this intercellular communication. Numerous types of intercellular communication have emerged during the course of life. In order to communicate, cells release soluble substances (such as hormones, growth factors, lipid mediators, cytokines, nitric oxide, etc.) that, via receptors or nonreceptor pathways, activate other cells nearby or far away.

Through chemical and electrical synapses, muscle and nerve cells can communicate. Spotted on cell surfaces, the integrins are a broad family of proteins involved in the formation of focal adhesion plaques and hemidesmosomes. Integrins have a very particular binding affinity for...