Background of the antigen
The cadherins are a family of Ca++-dependent adhesion molecules that function to mediate cell-cell binding critical to the maintenance of tissue structure and morpho-genesis (1-4). Cadherins each contain a large extracellular domain at the amino terminus, which is characterized by a series of five homologous repeats, the most distal of which is thought to be responsible for binding specificity (5,6). The relatively short carboxy terminal, intracellular domain interacts with a variety of cytoplasmic proteins, including catenin b, to regulate cadherin function (7). BR-cadherin (for brain-cadherin, also designated cadherin-12 or N-cadherin 2) is expressed specifically in neurons in the central nervous system and is thought to be involved in neuronal development (8).
