[neverdem]

What’s the ECM?

[aruanan]

What’s the ECM?

Extracellular matrix. Cells connect to this via a variety of cell adhesion molecules. The types and locations of attachments can provide positional feedback into the cell that can have signaling and even mechanical transduction capability on nuclear expression. This can affect what the cell "thinks" it is and the way it behaves (or misbehaves). In some transformed cells (which could be precursors to cancerous growth), reestablishment of cell adhesion can cause the cell to redifferentiate and revert back to its old self, so to speak.