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Intercellular Junctions

  • Chapter
Biology of the Integument

Abstract

Intercellular junctions are specialized regions of contact between the plasma membranes of adjacent cells. They are essential to any multicellular organism, providing the structural means by which groups of cells can adhere and interact. Within the integument of invertebrate organisms three main functional categories of junction can be identified: (1) Junctions that have an occluding function, allowing concentration gradients across an epithelium to be established and maintained; (2) Junctions that provide cell-cell or cell-substrate adhesion, allowing dissipation of local tensional stresses throughout a tissue; (3) Junctions which allow intercellular communication, providing the basis for the exchange of ions or low molecular weight substances between cells which are in intimate contact. Tight junctions, septate junctions and their tricellular components fall into the first category, belt, spot and hemidesmosomes into the second and gap junctions into the third.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiac Medicine, Cardiothoracic Institute, University of London, 2 Beaumont Street, London, WIN 2DX, England

    C. R. Green

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  1. C. R. Green
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Kinematische Zellforschung, Postfach 111932, D-6000, Frankfurt a.M., Germany

    Jürgen Bereiter-Hahn

  2. Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, 80 East Concord Street, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    A. Gedeon Matoltsy

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Keele, Keele, Staffordshire ST5, 5BG/GB, UK

    K. Sylvia Richards

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© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Green, C.R. (1984). Intercellular Junctions. In: Bereiter-Hahn, J., Matoltsy, A.G., Richards, K.S. (eds) Biology of the Integument. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-51593-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-51593-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-51595-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-51593-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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