Cell-substratum adhesion is important in wound healing [4], embryogenic development [11], tissue architecture [6], and metastasis [7]. Integrins constitute a major class of heterodimeric cell-surface glycoproteins involved in receptor-mediated adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM). Focal contacts are regions of the cell-substratum adhesion in which clusters of integrin receptors connect the cytoskeleton to extracellular matrix molecules such as fibronectin. Focal contacts strengthen cell-substrate adhesion, and are sites of biochemical activity. Since cell adhesion strength in part depends on the cell's ability to cluster receptors and cytoskeleton into focal contacts, the integrity of the focal contact, and hence a cell's adhesive strength, will depend both on integrin-cytoskeletal binding as well as integrin-ligand binding.

Using a centrifugation assay, we have quantified cell-substratum adhesion strength of mouse 3T3 cells transfected with the avian β1 integrin receptor (wild type), including various deletion mutants of its cytoplasmic domain, to surfaces containing varying concentrations of CSAT, a monoclonal antibody against the extracellular domain of the avian β1 subunit. For all the transfectants, adhesion strength decreases with decreasing CSAT concentration and increasing centrifugal strength. Different truncations of the cytoplasmic domain lead to different levels of adhesion. There is no simple correlation between the length of the cytoplasmic domain and the strength of adhesion.