title: Insights into the role of cell-cell junctions in physiology and disease.
abstract: Contacting cells establish different classes of intricate structures at the cell-cell junctions. These structures are of increasing research interest as they regulate a broad variety of processes in development and disease. Further, in vitro studies are revealing that various cell-cell interaction proteins are involved not only in cell-cell processes but also in many additional aspects of physiology, such as migration and apoptosis. This chapter reviews the basic classification of cell-cell junctional structures and some of their representative proteins. Their roles in development and disease are briefly outlined, followed by a section on contemporary methods for probing cell-cell interactions and some recent developments. This chapter concludes with a few suggestions for potential research directions to further develop this promising area of study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Hayden
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004194:Disease; D006801:Humans; D007365:Intercellular Junctions / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Adherens junctions; Cellular junctions; Desmosomes; Gap junctions; Tight junctions