%0 Journal Article
%T Signaling triggered by Thy-1 interaction with £¿3 integrin on astrocytes is an essential step towards unraveling neuronal Thy-1 function
%A AVALOS
%A ANA MARIA
%A LABRA
%A CECILIA V.
%A QUEST
%A ANDREW F.G.
%A LEYTON
%A LISSETTE
%J Biological Research
%D 2002
%I Sociedad de Biolog¨ªa de Chile
%R 10.4067/S0716-97602002000200015
%X thy-1 is an abundant neuronal glycoprotein in mammals. despite such prevalence, thy-1 function remains largely obscure in the absence of a defined ligand. recently described evidence that thy-1 interacts with £¿3 integrin on astrocytes will be discussed. thy-1 binding to £¿3 integrin triggers tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion proteins in astrocytes, thereby promoting focal adhesion formation, cell attachment and spreading. thy-1 has been reported to modulate neurite outgrowth by triggering a cellular response in neurons. however, our data indicate that thy-1 can also initiate signaling events that promote adhesion of adjacent astrocytes to the underlying surface. preliminary results suggest that morphological changes observed in the actin cytoskeleton of astrocytes as a consequence of thy-1 binding is mediated by small gtpases from the rho family. our findings argue that thy-1 functions in a bimodal fashion, as a receptor on neuronal cells and as a ligand for £¿3 integrin receptor on astrocytes. since thy-1 is implicated in the inhibition of neurite outgrowth, signaling events in astrocytes are likely to play an important role in this process
%K thy-1 ligand/integrins
%K gpi-anchored proteins
%K strocytes
%K focal adhesion.
%U http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0716-97602002000200015&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en