Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin: Only an intercellular glue?

Data collected during the past years indicate that AJ- and more specificall y VE-cadherin play an important role in endothelial cell biology. VE-cadher in may transfer information intracellularly through interaction with a comp lex network of cytoskeletal and signaling molecules. Expression of VE-cadhe rin is required for the control of vascular permeability and vascular integ rity. In addition, the molecule! may exert a morphogenetic role modulating the capacity of endothelial cells to organize into tubular-like structures. VE-cadherin presents many structural and sequence homologies to the other members of the family and apparently binds to the same intracellular molecu les. However, remarkably, VE-cadherin may transfer specific signals to endo thelial cells to modulate their functional reactivity. (C) 1999 Academic Pr ess.