Description
Laminin subunitalpha-4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the LAMA4 gene. Laminins, afamily of extracellular matrix glycoproteins, are the major noncollagenousconstituent of basement membranes. They have been implicated in a widevariety of biological processes including cell adhesion, differentiation,migration, signaling, neurite outgrowth and metastasis. Laminins are composedof 3 non identical chains: laminin alpha, beta and gamma (formerly A, B1, andB2, respectively) and they form a cruciform structure consisting of 3 short arms,each formed by a different chain, and a long arm composed of all 3 chains.Each laminin chain is a multidomain protein encoded by a distinct gene.Several isoforms of each chain have been described