These connective structures, called adherens junctions, play important roles in tissue development and renewal, but remain poorly understood, said Sergey Troyanovsky, Ph.D., professor of Dermatology, ...

Tight junctions (blue dots) between cells are connected areas of the plasma membrane that stitch cells together. Adherens junctions (red dots) join the actin filaments of neighboring cells together.

Our skin and mucous membranes are protected by epithelial cells, which form a barrier that defends the body from the outside ...

In particular, adaptor complexes bind adherens junctions to cytoskeletal actin, and other adaptor complexes bind desmosomes to intermediate filaments. Both of these types of junctional complexes ...

This function relies to a large extent on the presence of "adherens" and "tight junctions," veritable protein locks linking neighboring cells and ensuring tissue tightness. Tight junctions ...