title: A guide and guard: the many faces of T-cadherin.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Signal Transduction, Department of Biomedicine, Basel University Hospital, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Philippova
authors.forename: Manjunath B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Emmanouil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kyriakakis
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pfaff
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Erne
authors.forename: Therese J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Resink
mesh_terms: D015820:Cadherins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004194:Disease; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D011485:Protein Binding; D021381:Protein Transport; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; C099972:H-cadherin