Laminin Receptors in Peripheral Tissues --- Functions Revealed by Analysis of Knockout Mice

Laminin, by interacting with its receptors---mainly integrins and dystroglycan, exerts a variety of important functions in multiple organs. Loss-of-function studies have demonstrated the essential roles of laminin receptors in both physiological and pathological conditions. This review summarizes the pathology and loss-of-function phenotypes of laminin receptors, including integrin-α3, -α6, -α7, -β1, -β4, and dystroglycan, focusing on the skin, kidney, skeletal muscle, peripheral nervous system (PNS), mammary gland, lung, and heart. To explore the functional redundancy/compensation among different laminin receptors, the phenotypes of compound knockout mice are compared with that of single mutants. Next, key signaling pathways downstream of each laminin receptor are summarized and compared. In addition, key questions in the field and future directions are also discussed. This review aims to provide a synthetic review on loss-of-function studies of laminin receptors and foster the formation and testing of new hypotheses in the field.