This gene encodes an integrin beta chain, which combines with multiple different alpha chains to form different integrin heterodimers. Integrins are integral cell-surface proteins that participate in cell adhesion as well as cell-surface mediated signalling. The encoded protein plays an important role in immune response and defects in this gene cause leukocyte adhesion deficiency. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2014]