Fig. 4. Experimental and theoretical rupture force distribution of a cadherin-cadherin bond and heterotypic cadherin-cadherin interactions. (A) Experimental (white) and theoretical (black) histograms of rupture forces to break a single N-cadherin-N-cadherin bond connecting two apposing cells at a cantilever reproach velocity of 5 µm/second. Monte Carlo simulations, which were conducted using the Bell's model unstressed off-rate and reactive compliance extracted from the plot shown in Fig. 6A, show the consistency of the experimental data with the Bell's model predictions and further indicate that only one single type of bond is analyzed. (B) Representative force-distance curves for the detachment between two E-cadherin cells (top curve) and between an E-cadherin cell and an N-cadherin cell (bottom curve).