Overview
This book covers recent trends in the study of cell surfaces, cell interactions, and cell behavior during selected events in development and cancer. It relates current thrusts in molecular biology to more cellular aspects of these fields and draws parallels between advances in developmental biology, malignant invasiveness, wound healing, and regeneration. The book opens with a discussion of a number of developmental events, stressing the importance of the cell surface and extracellular matrix to morphogenesis, cell locomotion, and invasiveness. Basement membranes are discussed in terms of their activity as substrata for cell movement, barriers to invasion, and their role in epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. These aspects of cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction are directly compared with developmental and neoplastic events, emphasizing the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transformations that are common to both of these situations. Other topics discussed include cell surface considerations, cell-cell adhesion, cell-substratum adhesion, as well as a discussion regarding how these topics are relevant to the cell biology of wound healing and regeneration. This book is ideal for researchers and students in biology, cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, anatomy, zoology, and medicine.