title: E-N-cadherin heterodimers define novel adherens junctions connecting endoderm-derived cells.
abstract: Intercellular junctions play a pivotal role in tissue development and function and also in tumorigenesis. In epithelial cells, decrease or loss of E-cadherin, the hallmark molecule of adherens junctions (AJs), and increase of N-cadherin are widely thought to promote carcinoma progression and metastasis. In this paper, we show that this "cadherin switch" hypothesis does not hold for diverse endoderm-derived cells and cells of tumors derived from them. We show that the cadherins in a major portion of AJs in these cells can be chemically cross-linked in E-N heterodimers. We also show that cells possessing E-N heterodimer AJs can form semistable hemihomotypic AJs with purely N-cadherin-based AJs of mesenchymally derived cells, including stroma cells. We conclude that these heterodimers are the major AJ constituents of several endoderm-derived tissues and tumors and that the prevailing concept of antagonistic roles of these two cadherins in developmental and tumor biology has to be reconsidered.
authors: Helmholtz Group for Cell Biology, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Beate K
authors: BK
authors: Straub
authors: Steffen
authors: S
authors: Rickelt
authors: Ralf
authors: R
authors: Zimbelmann
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Grund
authors: Caecilia
authors: C
authors: Kuhn
authors: Marcus
authors: M
authors: Iken
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Ott
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Schirmacher
authors: Werner W
authors: WW
authors: Franke
mesh_terms: D022005:Adherens Junctions / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D015820:Cadherins / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D002417:Cattle; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D004707:Endoderm / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D013552:Swine; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins