Structure and Modulation of Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules in Early and Late Embryogenesis
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
Among the numerous critical aspects of neural development, two key events stand out: (1) neurulation or the formation of neural tissue and (2) the later formation of detailed connectivity leading to specific neuroanatomy, maps, and synaptic types. Underlying these and other developmental events are the primary processes of cell division, migration, adhesion, differentiation, and death. To the degree that these processes depend on cell-cell interaction, adhesion lays a pivotal role in pattern formation and morphogenesis. This role is direct in the sense of cell recognition, and regulatory in that such recognition may affect the sequence of the other primary processes. To understand this regulation, both a molecular description of adhesion and a description of the fundamental differentiation events that lead to the expression of cell adhesion molecules are required. A key question is whether early events, such as neurulation, and later events, such as the formation of connectional patterns, employ...
