Medicina: Ematologia: Talassemie e trapianto del midollo osseo
| English |
| extracellular matrix |
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| Attestation |
3
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| Part of speech |
Noun syntagm
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| Grammatical label |
Countable
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| Variant |
ECM
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| Definition |
Any material produced by cells and secreted into the surrounding medium, but usually applied to the noncellular portion of animal tissues. The ECM of connective tissue is particularly extensive and the properties of the ecm determine the properties of the tissue. In broad terms there are three major components: fibrous elements particularly collagen, elastin or reticulin), link proteins (e.g. Fibronectin, laminin) and space filling molecules (usually glycosaminoglycans). The matrix may be mineralised to resist compression (as in bone) or dominated by tension resisting fibres (as in tendon). The basal lamina of epithelial cells is another commonly encountered ecm. Although ecm is produced by cells, it has recently become clear that the ecm can influence the behaviour of cells quite markedly, an important factor to consider when growing cells in vitro: removing cells from their normal environment can have far reaching effects.
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| Definition source |
Cancerweb. OMD – On-line Medical Dictionary.
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| Context |
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex structural entity surrounding and supporting cells that are found within mammalian tissues. The ECM is often referred to as the connective tissue. The ECM is composed of 3 major classes of biomolecules: 1. Structural proteins: collagen and elastin. 2. Specialized proteins: e.g. fibrillin, fibronectin, and laminin. 3. Proteoglycans: these are composed of a protein core to which is attached long chains of repeating disaccharide units termed of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) forming extremely complex high molecular weight components of the ECM. Proteoglycans are covered in the section on Glycosaminoglycans and Proteoglycans.
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| Context source |
The Medical Biochemistry Page. Extracellular Matrix (ECM).
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| Synonym |
Connective tissue
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| Subject field |
Haemopoiesis
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| Comprehensive concept |
Bone marrow space
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| Partitive concept |
Collagen, elastin, fibrillin, fibronectin, laminin, proteoglican, glicoprotein
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| Coordinate concept |
Cellular matrix
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| Related concept |
Hematopoietic stem cell, committed precursor cell, committed erythroid progenitor cell, haemopoiesis
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| it |
Matrice extracellulare
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| Reliability code |
3
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