(F. Hernández y Juan F. Madrid. Universidad de Murcia: Departamento de Biología Celular e Histología, 2001) Takeuchi, T.; Ohtsuki, Y.
T-cadherin is a un ique cadherin ce ll ad hesion
molecul e that is anchored to the ce ll surface membrane
th rough a glycosy l phosphat id yl inositol (G PI) moiety.
The cy topl asmic domain , whi ch T-cad herin lacks. is
be li eved to bc criti ca l fo r homophilic binding th ro ugh
int erac ti on with subm cmbran e cy tos ke letal protc in s.
Docs this mea n th at T- ca dh e rin is an un imp ortanl
molec ul e? Howcvc r, th e T-cadherin amino ac id moti f
has bee n we ll co nse rve d thro ug h evo luti o n in
ve rt ebr ates, s uggestin g th a t T-c adh e rin may have
biologica l signifi ca nce in higher animals. Co nsistent
wi th this hypothesis, recent studies have thrown light on
the re levance of T-cadh erin in the fie lds of oncology,
neurology, respirology and ca rdiovascular ph ysiology. In
this manu sc ript , we rev iew current adva nces in Tcad herin research.