Liver Cell Adhesion Molecules in Embryonic Development

Cell-cell adhesion is one of the essential processes for normal embryogenesis. The isolation and characterization of the neural cell adhesion molecule, N-CAM, provided the first substantial opportunity to study this process at a molecular level. Moreover, studies of N-CAM expression in embryos suggested that cell adhesion molecules may play a critical role in induction. This thesis describes the isolation of a glycoprotein, L-CAM, that mediates adhesion between liver cells, using an assay similar to the one used to isolate N-CAM