Missing molecule hobbles cell movement

Cells are the body’s workers, and they often need to move around to do their jobs. Frequently, a cell will move through a tissue — say, the wall of a blood vessel — the way a rock climber scales a cliff, using a protein called integrin to grab onto a spot and pull itself in that direction. But cells missing the CD13 protein on their cell walls can’t recruit integrin, and get stuck in place.

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