Intracellular associations of adhesion molecules.

Significant advances have recently been made in our understanding of the cytoplasmic anchorage of adhesion molecules. The identification of catenins, a new class of proteins involved in the cytoplasmic anchorage of cadherins that are structurally homologous to other peripheral cytoplasmic proteins, emphasizes the existence of protein families that modulate the function of cell-substrate and cell-cell adhesion molecules.