Immune-mediated diseases of the CNS and PNS, such as multiple sclerosis and Guillain–Barré syndrome, respectively, constitute a major cause of transient and permanent neurological disability in the adult. The aetiology and pathogenesis of these disorders are only partially understood. On a cellular level, focal mononuclear-cell infiltration with demyelination and eventual axonal loss is a crucial pathogenetic event that leads to inflammation and subsequent dysfunction. Here, the evidence that integrins, a family of cell adhesion molecules, expressed on neural and immune cells might play a central role in immune cell recruitment to the CNS and PNS, and probably in tissue repair is reviewed. Distinct integrin expression patterns are observed in multiple sclerosis and Guillain–Barré syndrome. Therapeutic targeting of integrins has been very successful in the corresponding animal models and holds promise as a novel treatment strategy to combat human immune-mediated disorders of the nervous system.