Basement membranes are extracellular matrices—flat sheets of protein and carbohydrate—that are essential for tissue architecture and function. But like all tissues, they are subject to damage. Until ...

Perhaps the most powerful and long-lasting image in biology is that the basic component of living organisms is the cell. The region between cells has generally been ignored as only a vast scaffold ...

Scientists have exposed a cell pathway that breast tumor cells use to destruct local tissue neighborhood. Cancer cells may use this pathway to free themselves from mammary epithelial tissue ...

For cancer cells to metastasize, they must first break free of a tumor's own defenses. Most tumors are sheathed in a protective "basement" membrane -- a thin, pliable film that holds cancer cells in ...

The advent of in situ immunology and intravital analyses of leukocyte movement in tissues has drawn attention to the previously neglected extracellular matrix (ECM) and its role in modulating immune ...

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) contribute to the breakdown of tissue structures such as the basement membrane, promoting tissue fibrosis. Here we developed an electrospun membrane biofunctionalized ...

Scientists at Duke University say they made the first time-lapse movies of the sheet-like latticework that surrounds and supports most animal tissues. A thin layer of extracellular matrix known as the ...

Light-up proteins in the sheet-like matrix that encases tissues offer new toolkit for studying everything from kidney disease to aging. Duke University researchers have made the first time-lapse ...