Role of adhesion molecules in cutaneous inflammation and neoplasia

There is accumulating evidence that the expression of certain adhesion molecules has important consequences for understanding patterns of cell movement in normal and pathologically altered skin. This paper reviews recent work regarding the role of integrins and other adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1, PECAM-1, LECAM-1, and ELAM-1) in cutaneous inflammation and neoplasia, and presents a unifying hypothesis which outlines how sequential expression of cytokines and adhesion molecules in evolving inflammation may alter the nature of the cellular response.