Coordinate role for cell surface chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and alpha-4-beta-1 integrin in mediating melanoma cell adhesion to fibronectin

The molecular basis of adhesion of highly metastatic human melanoma cells to the 33-kD fragment of fibronectin (FN) was elucidated. The results showed that binding of the melanoma cells to FN involves the action of alpha-4-integrin subunits as well as cell surface chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan. Additionally, a region within the 33-kD fragment was identified as a novel heparin binding, cell adhesion-promoting region. The region, termed as FN-C/H-III, acts in coordination with other cell adhesion promoting sites to bind a melanoma cell surface receptor complex.