The Cross-Rho'ds of Cell-Cell Adhesion

In vivo, cells live, proliferate, move, and die in a densely populated neighborhood surrounded by a lush forest of tissue and stromal components. Few, if any, cellular processes are not affected by a cell's adhesive interactions with its neighbors and with the surrounding matrix. Consequently, changes in a cell's adhesive properties accompany the misregulations in other cell functions that cause and/or result from various pathological conditions such as cancer progression. During the transition from a benign to a metastatic state, there is a breakdown of adhesive bonds between neighboring cells.