Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
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Regulation of cadherin—based adhesion is an important but poorly studied question. Little is known which mechanisms control the size, number, strength, dynamics, and motility of adherens junctions. Cadherin endocytosis has been suggested to be one such mechanism. Recent studies have revealed several pathways of cadherin endocytosis, each of which appears to have specific functions. These pathways are surprisingly similar to those responsible for endocytosis of growth factor receptors. They could mediate the uptake of cadherin from both the inside and outside of adherens junctions thereby controlling different parameters of cell-cell adhesion structures.