Hello, I am just a transcriptionist but I am very curious about all things medical so I was wondering if anyone could help me out with something that's been bugging me.
In my copy of Stedman's GI & GU Words: Including Nephrology the very second entry lists "α2β1" as standing for alpha-2-beta-1 integrin cell-surface collagen. From what I can tell from the Internet, α2β1 is a type of integrin which has, predictably, subunits α2 and β1. Types α1β1 and α2β1 of integrin are collagens. So is α2β1 a collagen specifically found in cell membranes?
And then mainly, I'm just wondering what this term is doing in a GI book, and why of all the types of integrin it is the only one listed. I asked a radiologist and he said it might have to do with treating intestinal bleeding. Is this right?
Thanks so much for humoring my curiosity. I'm a total nerd and got it into my head to go through all the terms and find out what they mean. But I got stumped on the second one...
In my copy of Stedman's GI & GU Words: Including Nephrology the very second entry lists "α2β1" as standing for alpha-2-beta-1 integrin cell-surface collagen. From what I can tell from the Internet, α2β1 is a type of integrin which has, predictably, subunits α2 and β1. Types α1β1 and α2β1 of integrin are collagens. So is α2β1 a collagen specifically found in cell membranes?
And then mainly, I'm just wondering what this term is doing in a GI book, and why of all the types of integrin it is the only one listed. I asked a radiologist and he said it might have to do with treating intestinal bleeding. Is this right?
Thanks so much for humoring my curiosity. I'm a total nerd and got it into my head to go through all the terms and find out what they mean. But I got stumped on the second one...