Fig. 1. Fibroblasts express N-cadherin, which mediates intercellular adhesions compromised by matrix adhesions. (i) Whole-cell lysates of Rat-2 fibroblasts probed with monoclonal antibodies specific for N, E and P cadherins (top). A431 and LNCaP cell lysates used to verify specificity of antibodies used for cadherin expression profiling of Rat-2 fibroblasts. Equal loading of samples was optimized by measuring total amounts of protein (by BioRad assay) and co-blotted with ß-actin. (ii-iv) Immunostaining of cells seeded on fibronectin in high density shows intense intercellular N-cadherin staining at 15 minutes, which decreases following maturation of cell-substratum adhesions. Bars, 20 µm.