Definition

Molecule involved in the mechanism for linking the cells between them.

Classification

Outside adhesins, one distinguishes several families:

• The cadherins
• Integrins
• The selectins

Tissues are comprised of cells adhering between them. Adhesin is a receptor protein nature, located on a membrane receptor involved in increasing the adhesion between cells and between bacteria and other cellular substances. Bacterial adhesin is an Antigen on the surface of the seeds which conferred a power of adhesion with respect of the cells they infect bacteria. This bacterial adhesin binds to the fimbriae. It is a bacterial body with also the name of pili bacterial and consisting of a particularly thin structure, with a filamentous nature (pili = hair) and that it is possible to observe on the surface of some germs highlighted by a stain Gram – after or gonococci. It is Cilia or flagella (structure with a certain wave for the bacterium and the sperm forward) but substances to adhere. Protein (made of protein) structure of these pili (pilin) is similar to that of an Antigen with characters used in the laboratory to manufacture some vaccine called pilivaccins. Cell adhesin corresponds also to a membrane receptor that allows to set some factors within the plasma (fluid part of blood) or tissue. Cell adhesin has a leading role in platelet aggregation and adhesion of various cells such as for example those component the mesothelioma (cells covering the inside of the vessels, malignant cells entering in the composition of a cancerous tumor or monocytes: neighbouring cells of white blood cell precursor of macrophages).