Abstract This chapter will describe the keratinocyte system as a model to study the regulation of cadherin-mediated cell–cell adhesion. However, some of the principles discussed here can be applied to the analyses of different adhesive systems in other cell types. The chapter describes the potentials and pitfalls of the keratinocyte culture system and the various techniques used to investigate the regulation of cell–cell adhesiveness. Among these, a detailed description is given of microinjection in epithelial cells as a technique to investigate regulation of cadherin function by members of the small GTPase family. The analysis of the microinjection results by immunostaining and confocal microscopy is also presented. In addition, this chapter illustrates biochemical methods to determine the composition of cadherin complexes and their phosphorylation status (orthophosphate labelling and phosphopeptide mapping). Finally, two functional assays are discussed: the use of inhibitory antibodies to block cadherin-dependent adhesion and a technique to cluster cadherin receptors artificially.

Braga, V. (2001). Cadherin adhesion regulation in keratinocytes. Cell–Cell Interactions, 1–36.