# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Cell Adhesion Molecules Research Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/cell-adhesion-molecules-research/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Cell Adhesion Molecules Research research in the Class of 2026?

Cell adhesion research in the Class of 2026 centers on tumor microenvironment interactions, focal adhesions, and immunohistochemistry mapping. Emerging targets like CLDN18.2, mechanosensing, and endothelial dysfunction surged rapidly, while broad structural topics including extracellular matrix remodeling and fibronectin experienced relative declines.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Cell Adhesion Molecules Research |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 3,557 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Immunohistochemistry, Tumor microenvironment, Focal adhesions, Single-cell RNA sequencing, Angiogenesis |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 27–201 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved July 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Mechanisms of assembly and remodelling of the extracellular matrix | Alexandra Naba | Alexandra Naba | University of Illinois Chicago, United States | Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology | 201 | 10.1038/s41580-024-00767-3 |
| 2 | The role and regulation of integrins in cell migration and invasion | Megan R Chastney, Jasmin Kaivola, Veli-Matti Leppänen, Johanna Ivaska | Johanna Ivaska | Turku Bioscience Centre, Finland | Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology | 142 | 10.1038/s41580-024-00777-1 |
| 3 | Single‐extracellular vesicle (EV) analyses validate the use of L1 Cell Adhesion Molecule (L1CAM) as a reliable biomarker of neuron‐derived EVs | Carlos J Nogueras-Ortiz, Erden Eren, Pamela Yao, Elizabeth Calzada, Christopher Dunn, Olga Volpert, Francheska Delgado-Peraza, Maja Mustapic, Alexey Lyashkov, F Javier Rubio, Michael Vreones, Lesley Cheng, Yang You, Andrew F Hill, Tsuneya Ikezu, Erez Eitan, Edward J Goetzl, Dimitrios Kapogiannis | Carlos Nogueras‐Ortiz, Dimitrios Kapogiannis | National Institutes of Health, United States | Journal of Extracellular Vesicles | 54 | 10.1002/jev2.12459 |
| 4 | CD63 sorts cholesterol into endosomes for storage and distribution via exosomes | Roberta Palmulli, Mickaël Couty, Melissa C Piontek, Maharajah Ponnaiah, Florent Dingli, Frederik J Verweij, Stéphanie Charrin, Matteo Tantucci, Sajitha Sasidharan, Eric Rubinstein, Anatol Kontush, Damarys Loew, Marie Lhomme, Wouter H Roos, Graça Raposo, Guillaume van Niel | Guillaume van Niel | Institut Curie, France | Nature Cell Biology | 54 | 10.1038/s41556-024-01432-9 |
| 5 | Recognition and control of neutrophil extracellular trap formation by MICL | Mariano Malamud, Lauren Whitehead, Alasdair McIntosh, Fabio Colella, Anke J Roelofs, Takato Kusakabe, Ivy M Dambuza, Annie Phillips-Brookes, Fabián Salazar, Federico Perez, Romey Shoesmith, Przemyslaw Zakrzewski, Emily A Sey, Cecilia Rodrigues, Petruta L Morvay, Pierre Redelinghuys, Tina Bedekovic, Maria J G Fernandes, Ruqayyah Almizraq, Donald R Branch, Borko Amulic, Jamie Harvey, Diane Stewart, Raif Yuecel, Delyth M Reid, Alex McConnachie, Matthew C Pickering, Marina Botto, Iliyan D Iliev, Iain B McInnes, Cosimo De Bari, Janet A Willment, Gordon D Brown | Gordon D. Brown | University of Exeter, United Kingdom | Nature | 51 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07820-3 |
| 6 | An engineered α1β1 integrin-mediated FcγRI signaling component to control enhanced CAR macrophage activation and phagocytosis | Fuyu Du, Zixuan Ye, Anna He, Jingtong Yuan, Maozhi Su, Qingan Jia, Huaiyu Wang, Peng Yang, Zuo Yang, Pengbo Ning, Zhongliang Wang | Pengbo Ning, Zhongliang Wang | Xidian University, China | Journal of Controlled Release | 50 | 10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.11.064 |
| 7 | Determination of single-molecule loading rate during mechanotransduction in cell adhesion | Myung Hyun Jo, Paul Meneses, Olivia Yang, Claudia C Carcamo, Sushil Pangeni, Taekjip Ha | Taekjip Ha | Boston Children's Hospital, United States | Science | 48 | 10.1126/science.adk6921 |
| 8 | CD151-enriched migrasomes mediate hepatocellular carcinoma invasion by conditioning cancer cells and promoting angiogenesis | Kangnan Zhang, Zhenhua Zhu, Rongrong Jia, N A Wang, Min Shi, Yugang Wang, Shihao Xiang, Qinghui Zhang, Ling Xu | Qinghui Zhang | Tongren Hospital, China | Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research | 47 | 10.1186/s13046-024-03082-z |
| 9 | Neutrophil trapping and nexocytosis, mast cell-mediated processes for inflammatory signal relay | Michael Mihlan, Stefanie Wissmann, Alina Gavrilov, Lukas Kaltenbach, Marie Britz, Kristin Franke, Barbara Hummel, Andrea Imle, Ryo Suzuki, Manuel Stecher, Katharina M Glaser, Axel Lorentz, Peter Carmeliet, Takehiko Yokomizo, Ingo Hilgendorf, Ritwick Sawarkar, Alba Diz-Muñoz, Joerg M Buescher, Gerhard Mittler, Marcus Maurer, Karoline Krause, Magda Babina, Luise Erpenbeck, Marcus Frank, Angelika S Rambold, Tim Lämmermann | Michael Mihlan, Tim Lämmermann | Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Germany | Cell | 47 | 10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.014 |
| 10 | Global prevalence of claudin 18 isoform 2 in tumors of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma | Kohei Shitara, Rui-Hua Xu, Jaffer A Ajani, Diarmuid Moran, Abraham Guerrero, Ran Li, Janet Pavese, Maria Matsangou, Pranob Bhattacharya, Yoko Ueno, Xuewei Wang, Manish A Shah | Manish A. Shah | National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan | Gastric Cancer | 44 | 10.1007/s10120-024-01518-1 |
| 11 | Ligand binding initiates single-molecule integrin conformational activation | Jing Li, Myung Hyun Jo, Jiabin Yan, Taylor Hall, Joon Lee, Uriel López-Sánchez, Sophia Yan, Taekjip Ha, Timothy A Springer | Taekjip Ha, Timothy A. Springer | Boston Children's Hospital, United States | Cell | 39 | 10.1016/j.cell.2024.04.049 |
| 12 | Neutrophil-derived migrasomes are an essential part of the coagulation system | Dong Jiang, Lin Jiao, Qing Li, Renxiang Xie, Haohao Jia, ShiHui Wang, Yining Chen, Siyuan Liu, Dandan Huang, Jiajia Zheng, Wenhao Song, Ying Li, JianFeng Chen, Jinsong Li, Binwu Ying, Li Yu | Li Yu | Tsinghua University, China | Nature Cell Biology | 37 | 10.1038/s41556-024-01440-9 |
| 13 | Rare genetic variation in fibronectin 1 (FN1) protects against APOEε4 in Alzheimer’s disease | Prabesh Bhattarai, Tamil Iniyan Gunasekaran, Michael E Belloy, Dolly Reyes-Dumeyer, Dörthe Jülich, Hüseyin Tayran, Elanur Yilmaz, Delaney Flaherty, Bengisu Turgutalp, Gauthaman Sukumar, Camille Alba, Elisa Martinez McGrath, Daniel N Hupalo, Dagmar Bacikova, Yann Le Guen, Rafael Lantigua, Martin Medrano, Diones Rivera, Patricia Recio, Tal Nuriel, Nilüfer Ertekin-Taner, Andrew F Teich, Dennis W Dickson, Scott Holley, Michael Greicius, Clifton L Dalgard, Michael Zody, Richard Mayeux, Caghan Kizil, Badri N Vardarajan | Çağhan Kızıl, Badri N. Vardarajan | Columbia University, United States | Acta Neuropathologica | 35 | 10.1007/s00401-024-02721-1 |
| 14 | Focal adhesions contain three specialized actin nanoscale layers | Reena Kumari, Katharina Ven, Megan Chastney, Shrikant B Kokate, Johan Peränen, Jesse Aaron, Konstantin Kogan, Leonardo Almeida-Souza, Elena Kremneva, Renaud Poincloux, Teng-Leong Chew, Peter W Gunning, Johanna Ivaska, Pekka Lappalainen | Pekka Lappalainen | University of Helsinki, Finland | Nature Communications | 34 | 10.1038/s41467-024-46868-7 |
| 15 | Clinicopathological analysis of claudin 18.2 focusing on intratumoral heterogeneity and survival in patients with metastatic or unresectable gastric cancer | T-Y Kim, Y Kwak, S K Nam, D Han, D-Y Oh, S-A Im, H S Lee | Hye Seung Lee | Seoul National University Hospital, South Korea | ESMO Open | 31 | 10.1016/j.esmoop.2024.104000 |
| 16 | A phase 3 randomized trial of mavorixafor, a CXCR4 antagonist, for WHIM syndrome | Raffaele Badolato, Laia Alsina, Antoine Azar, Yves Bertrand, Audrey A Bolyard, David Dale, Àngela Deyà-Martínez, Kathryn E Dickerson, Navid Ezra, Henrik Hasle, Hyoung Jin Kang, Sorena Kiani-Alikhan, Taco W Kuijpers, Alexander Kulagin, Daman Langguth, Carina Levin, Olaf Neth, Peter Olbrich, Jane Peake, Yulia Rodina, Caroline E Rutten, Anna Shcherbina, Teresa K Tarrant, Matthias G Vossen, Christian A Wysocki, Andrea Belschner, Gary J Bridger, Kelly Chen, Susan Dubuc, Yanping Hu, Honghua Jiang, Sunny Li, Rick MacLeod, Murray Stewart, Arthur G Taveras, Tina Yan, Jean Donadieu | Raffaele Badolato | University of Brescia, Italy | Blood | 29 | 10.1182/blood.2023022658 |
| 17 | Integrin <i>β</i>8 Facilitates Macrophage Infiltration and Polarization by Regulating CCL5 to Promote LUAD Progression | Lei Song, Xi Yu, Yang Wu, Wenwen Zhang, Yu Zhang, Yanchi Shao, Zhenxin Hou, Chen Yang, Yue Gao, Yanbin Zhao | Yue Gao, Yanbin Zhao | Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, China | Advanced Science | 29 | 10.1002/advs.202406865 |
| 18 | Knockdown of integrin β1 inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis in bladder cancer cells | Jin-Feng Wang, Jian-She Wang, Yang Liu, Bo Ji, Bei-Chen Ding, Ya-Xuan Wang, Ming-Hua Ren | Beichen Ding, Yaxuan Wang, Ming-Hua Ren | First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China | BioFactors | 28 | 10.1002/biof.2150 |
| 19 | Von Willebrand factor exacerbates heart failure through formation of neutrophil extracellular traps | Ge Mang, Jianfeng Chen, Ping Sun, Ruishuang Ma, Jingwen Du, Xiaoqi Wang, Jingxuan Cui, Mian Yang, Zhonghua Tong, Xiangyu Yan, Dongni Wang, Huiqi Xie, Yujia Chen, Qiannan Yang, Yingjin Kong, Jiaqi Jin, Jian Wu, Maomao Zhang, Bo Yu | Jiaqi Jin, Jian Wu, Maomao Zhang, Bo Yu | The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China | European Heart Journal | 27 | 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae517 |
| 20 | The humanized platelet glycoprotein VI Fab inhibitor EMA601 protects from arterial thrombosis and ischaemic stroke in mice | Stefano Navarro, Ivan Talucci, Vanessa Göb, Stefanie Hartmann, Sarah Beck, Valerie Orth, Guido Stoll, Hans M Maric, David Stegner, Bernhard Nieswandt | Stefano Navarro | Institute of Experimental Biomedicine I, Germany | European Heart Journal | 27 | 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae482 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 in cell adhesion molecules research is defined by an intense focus on the structural and functional interplay between adhesion complexes and the tumor microenvironment. Methodological advances in immunohistochemistry (10% normalized frequency, 5 mentions) and single-cell RNA sequencing (8% normalized frequency, 4 mentions) dominate the top-ranked literature, enabling high-resolution mapping of cellular interfaces. At the subcellular level, focal adhesions (8%) and focal adhesion kinase (6%) remain fundamental hubs for mechanotransduction and signaling pathways regulating cell survival and migration. Concurrently, vascular and stromal adhesion mechanisms feature prominently through endothelial dysfunction (6%), ICAM-1 (6%), and extracellular vesicles (6%), which mediate intercellular communication and barrier integrity. Research increasingly links these adhesion structures to pathological states, notably gastric cancer and tumor-associated angiogenesis (6%). Together, these dominant clusters demonstrate a field-wide transition from basic structural characterization toward deciphering how cell-matrix and cell-cell adhesion dynamics drive disease progression and microenvironmental remodeling.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Between the Class of 2025 and the Class of 2026, cell adhesion molecules research experienced a clear shift from generalized matrix components toward specialized cell-surface targets and mechanosensing mechanisms. The most dramatic surge occurred in CLDN18.2 (claudin 18.2), rising from unranked status in 2023 to a 6% normalized frequency in 2024, highlighting its rapid emergence as a pivotal tight junction protein and therapeutic target in gastric oncology. Similarly, mechanosensing, endothelial cells, and endothelial dysfunction surged to 6% normalized frequency, reflecting heightened interest in physical force transduction and vascular adhesion dynamics. Macrophage polarization also expanded threefold (from 2% to 6%), underscoring immune adhesion in tumor biology. Conversely, foundational structural themes saw relative declines, including extracellular matrix remodeling (dropping from 12% to 4%), fibronectin (10% to 4%), and focal adhesions (14% to 8%). This evolution indicates that while foundational adhesion scaffolds remain essential, high-impact research has pivoted toward precise molecular targets and mechanobiological regulation at cell interfaces.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Cell Adhesion Molecules Research Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/cell-adhesion-molecules-research/2026. Accessed 2026-07-21.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```