[Dysfunction of cadherin cell adhesion system in cancer invasion and metastasis]

Dysfunction of the cadherin-mediated cell adhesion system involved in cancer metastasis occurs by several mechanisms: alterations of E-cadherin, alpha- and beta-catenin genes, CpG methylation of the promoter region of E-cadherin, and aberrant tyrosine phosphorylation of beta-catenin. In addition to the cell adhesion function, beta-catenin, which is an intracytoplasmic cadherin binding molecule and thought to be a regulator of cadherin-mediated cell adhesion function, has been proven to associate with both the growth factor receptors, including c-erbB-2, EGF receptor and k-sam and APC tumor suppressor gene product. These data indicate that the cadherin-mediated cell adhesion system plays important roles not only in cancer metastasis but in carcinogenesis.