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About the Authors:
Doug A. Medvetz
Contributed equally to this work with: Doug A. Medvetz, Damir Khabibullin
Affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Damir Khabibullin
Contributed equally to this work with: Doug A. Medvetz, Damir Khabibullin
Affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Venkatesh Hariharan
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
Pat P. Ongusaha
Affiliation: Vascular Medicine Research Unit, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Elena A. Goncharova
Affiliation: Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Tanja Schlechter
Affiliation: Joint Research Division Vascular Biology, Medical Faculty Mannheim and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ-ZMBH-Alliance), Mannheim, Germany
Thomas N. Darling
Affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
Ilse Hofmann
Affiliation: Joint Research Division Vascular Biology, Medical Faculty Mannheim and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ-ZMBH-Alliance), Mannheim, Germany
Vera P. Krymskaya
Affiliation: Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
James K. Liao
Affiliation: Vascular Medicine Research Unit, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Hayden Huang
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
Elizabeth P. Henske
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Introduction
Cell-cell junctions, which include adherens junctions, desmosomes, and tight junctions, are fundamental to the intricate cellular architecture of all epithelial tissues [1]. Because cell-cell junctions allow the epithelium to function as a coordinated tissue, they must be dynamically regulated and remodeled during growth and development, in response to injury, and during normal tissue homeostasis. Adherens junctions link neighboring epithelial cells to the actin cytoskeleton, and desmosomes link them to keratin intermediate filaments. Adherens junctions classically contain E-cadherin and p120-catenin while desmosomes contain desmosomal...