Nose A, Nagafuchi A, Takeichi M
Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Japan.
Cell. 1988 Sep 23;54(7):993-1001. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90114-6.
Cadherins are cell-surface glycoproteins responsible for Ca2+-dependent cell-to-cell adhesion. E- or P-cadherin was transfected into L cells, which normally have little cadherin activity, and cellular aggregation of the resulting transfectants was observed to be a function of the cadherin molecule expressed. Transfected cells preferentially adhered to cells expressing the same cadherin subclass. Furthermore, in reconstituted embryonic lung tissue, E-cadherin-expressing L cells were associated with epithelial tubules expressing E-cadherin, while untransfected L cells associated with mesenchymal cells. These results provide the first direct evidence that the differential expression of cadherins can play a role in cell sorting in heterogeneous cell populations.
钙黏着蛋白是负责钙离子依赖性细胞间黏附的细胞表面糖蛋白。将E-钙黏着蛋白或P-钙黏着蛋白转染到通常几乎没有钙黏着蛋白活性的L细胞中，观察到所得转染细胞的细胞聚集是所表达的钙黏着蛋白分子的一种功能。转染细胞优先与表达相同钙黏着蛋白亚类的细胞黏附。此外，在重组胚胎肺组织中，表达E-钙黏着蛋白的L细胞与表达E-钙黏着蛋白的上皮小管相关，而未转染的L细胞与间充质细胞相关。这些结果提供了首个直接证据，表明钙黏着蛋白的差异表达可在异质细胞群体的细胞分选过程中发挥作用。
