Junctional Adhesion Molecule | |
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Identifiers | |
Symbol | JAM |
Membranome | Immunoglobulinset domain V set domain |
A junctional adhesion molecule (JAM) is a protein that is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily,[1][2] and is expressed in a variety of different tissues, such as leukocytes, platelets, and epithelial and endothelial cells.[2] They have been shown to regulate signal complex assembly on both their cytoplasmic and extracellular domains through interaction with scaffolding that contains a PDZ domain and adjacent cell's receptors, respectively.[3] JAMs adhere to adjacent cells through interactions with integrins LFA-1 and Mac-1, which are contained in leukocyte β2 and α4β1, which is contained in β1. JAMs have many influences on leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions, which are primarily moderated by the integrins discussed above.[4] They interact in their cytoplasmic domain with scaffold proteins that contain a PDZ domain, which are common protein interaction modules that target short amino acid sequences at the C-terminus of proteins, to form tight junctions in both epithelial and endothelial cells as polarity is gained in the cell.[3]