[The structure and function of cadherins and their pathophysiological roles in diseases].

Cadherins are a family of Ca(2+)-dependent cell adhesion molecules that mediate cell adhesion by homophilic interaction and play critical role in multicellular organ formation. Recent progress revealed the three-dimensional structure of extracellular cadherin repeats that made great progress in the study of cell adhesion by cadherins. The perturbation of cadherin function in transformed cells results in inhibition of cell-cell adhesion, that appears to promote metastasis and invasiveness of tumor cells. Expression as well as modifications of catenins, which link cadherins to cytoskeletons, have crucial effects on this purturbation mechanisms. Tyrosine phosphorylation of cadherin catenin complex may be the important regulatory mechanism.