Cadherins comprise a family of Ca-dependent adhesion molecules that function to mediate cell-cell binding critical to the maintenance of tissue structure and morphogenesis. Cadherins consist of large extracellular domains characterized by a series of five homologous NH2 terminal repeats. The most distal of cadherins is thoμgh to be responsible for binding specificity, transmembrane domains and carboxy terminal domains. The relative short intracellular domains interact with a variety of cytoplasmic proteins, such as β-catenin, to regulate cadherin function.