A guide and guard: the many faces of T-cadherin.
Cadherins are a superfamily of transmembrane proteins that mediate calcium-dependent intercellular adhesion. T-cadherin (T-cad, H-cadherin or cadherin-13) is an atypical member, lacking transmembrane and cytosolic domains and possessing a glycosylphosphatidylinositol moiety that anchors T-cadherin to the plasma membrane. This article reviews current knowledge on the biomolecular characteristics of T-cadherin,its expression and function in different tissues in health and disease and its mechanisms of signal transduction. The structural characteristics of T-cadherin protein predict that it is unlikely to function as a"true" adhesion molecule in vivo. Studies from different fields suggest that it may act rather as a signalling receptor participating in recognition of the environment and regulation of cell motility, proliferation and phenotype. Cellular expression levels of T-cadherin in various tissues frequently correlate (be it negatively or positively) with the proliferative potential of the cells. Loss- and gain-of-function studies demonstrate the ability of T-cadherin to modulate cell motility and growth. Gathering evidence suggests that the "functional predestination" of T-cadherin is in control of tissue architecture through "guiding" navigation of moving structures, segregating functional tissue compartments and "guarding" integrity of functionally connected tissue layers.
Philippova
Maria
M
Laboratory for Signal Transduction, Department of Biomedicine, Basel University Hospital, Switzerland.
Joshi
Manjunath B
MB
Kyriakakis
Emmanouil
E
Pfaff
Dennis
D
Erne
Paul
P
Resink
Therese J
TJ
D015820:Cadherins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004194:Disease; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D011485:Protein Binding; D021381:Protein Transport; D015398:Signal Transduction
D015820:Cadherins; C099972:H-cadherin