Invadopodia: A guided tour

The controlled degradation or extracellular matrix is crucial in physiological and pathological cell invasion alike. In cultured cells, degradation occurs at specific sites where invasive cells make contact with the extracellular matrix via specialized plasma membrane protrusions termed invadopodia. Considerable progress has been made in recent years towards understanding the basic molecular components and the ultrastructural features of invadopodia. This current knowledge will be reviewed here together with some of the most important open questions in invadopodia. biology. Considering the substantial interest and momentum in the field, the need for ail operational framework to correctly define and identify invadopodia will also be discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.