Biochemistry of Extracellular Matrix -- Semipermeabilized Cells to Study Procollagen Assembly -- Biophysics of Extracellular Matrix Proteins -- Quantitative Determination of Collagen Crosslinks -- Analysis of Laminin Structure and Function with Recombinant Glycoprotein Expressed in Insect Cells -- Recombinant Collagen Trimers from Insect Cells and Yeast -- Eukaryotic Expression and Purification of Recombinant Extracellular Matrix Proteins Carrying the Strep II Tag -- Preparation of Isotopically Labeled Recombinant Fragments of Fibronectin for Functional and Structural Study by Heteronuclear Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy -- Reconstitution of Functional Integrin into Phopsholipid Vesicles and Planar Lipid Bilayers -- Confocal-FRAP Analysis of ECM Molecular Interactions -- Electron Cryomicroscopy of Fibrillar Collagens -- Atomic Force Microspopy Measurements of Intermolecular Binding Strength -- ECM Macromolecules: Rotary Shadowing and Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy -- Molecular Biology of Extracellular Matrix Genes -- Screening for Mutations in Cartilage ECM Genes -- Tissue-Specific KO of ECM Proteins -- Homologous Gene Targeting to Study ECM Assembly -- Enhancer Analysis of the ?1(II) and ?2(XI) Collagen Genes in Transfected Chondrocytes and Transgenic Mice -- Retroviral Delivery of ECM Genes to Cells -- Cell Biology of the Extracellular Matrix -- Using Self-Assembled Monolayers to Pattern ECM Proteins and Cells on Subtrates -- Methods for Preparing Extracellular Matrix and Quantifying Insulin-like Growth Factor-Binding Protein Binding to the ECM -- Measuring Interactions Between ECM and TGF?-Like Proteins -- Using Organotypic Tissue Slices as Substrata for the Culture of Dissociated Cells -- Neuroepithelial Differentiation Induced by ECM Molecules -- Migration Assays for Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells -- Cell Adhesion Assays -- Tissue Engineering and Cell-Populated Collagen Matrices -- Solid Phase Assays for Studying ECM Protein-Protein Interactions -- Tissue Engineering of Cartilage -- Tissue Recombinants to Study Extracellular Matrix Targeting to Basement Membranes -- Fluorescence Assays to Study Cell Adhesion and Migration In Vitro -- Analyzing Cell-ECM Interactions in Adult Mammary Gland by Transplantation of Embryonic Mammary Tissue from Knockout Mice.

It is now widely accepted that much of the dynamic function of cells and tissues is regulated from outside the cell by the extracellular matrix (ECM). In Extracellular Matrix Protocols, leading bench-top experimentalists from around the world present in a proven format their state-of-the-art methods for probing the extracellular matrix, its mechanisms of assembly, and how it influences cell behavior. These carefully detailed biochemical, biophysical, molecular biological, and cell biological techniques have been optimized for the study ECM structure and assembly, the mechanisms of cell-ECM interactions, and the molecular genetics of ECM proteins and defects in human disease, and bring to a wider audience a range of highly sophisticated methods that have hitherto been difficult even for a few specialized laboratories. Cutting-edge and highly practical, Extracellular Matrix Protocols offers today's ECM researchers a gold-standard collection of powerful, readily reproducible methods to investigate the extracellular matrix and the altered cell-ECM interactions that play so important a role in human health and disease.