Tenascin is an extracellular matrix protein with highly regulated expression and uncertain functions. It is prominently expressed during musculoskeletal embryogenesis. The pattern of distribution of tenascin in healthy adult musculoskeletal tissues is spatially and temporally restricted. It can be only detected in a small amount in the muscle-tendon junctions, tendons, perichondrium, periosteum, endosteum, the superficial layer of articular cartilage and the subintimal connective tissue of synovium. Elevated tenascin expression is found in inflammatory, degenerative and neoplastic lesions of the musculoskeletal system. The peculiar pattern of tenascin expression suggests it may play a role in the regulation of cell behavior at the interfaces between different elements of the musculoskeletal system and in various pathological processes, in particular those involving attachment and or detachment of cells from the extracellular matrix and their proliferation and collagenase secretion.
Biomedical Reviews 1996; 6: 83-94.
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