THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ADHESION MOLECULES IN NEPHROLOGY

Our knowledge of adhesion molecules has exploded over the last 5 years and has swamped most fields of medicine including nephrology. This is not surprising because adhesion molecules play a pivotal role in all aspects of cell to cell contact. Thus, they are involved in important issues, such as fetal development, in any kind of inflammatory or immu ne response including allograft rejection, as well as thrombus formati on, and in tumor growth and metastasis (1-3). This short overview brie fly reports some aspects of the biology of relevant adhesion molecules and their significance in inflammatory kidney diseases and in hemodia lysis and renal allograft rejection. Finally, new therapeutic opportun ities that arise by blocking adhesion molecule function are discussed.