Role of endothelial integrins in flow transduction: a review and a novel experimental approach

Abstract

Integrins are a family of ubiquitous plasma membrane proteins involved in many different signal transduction pathways, mainly associated to cell adhesion events. Accumulating evidence indicates that integrins play an important role in detecting blood flow by endothelial cells. However, the corresponding transduction mechanism is far from being understood. Here we review recent evidence supporting the participation of integrins in several events triggered by shear stress in endothelial cells. Additionally, we describe a novel approach to investigate the role of integrin in flow transduction using Xenopus laevis oocytes as expression system.