**1. Introduction**

Cells adhere to the matrix and other cells around them, which fundamentally impacts their behavior. A thorough understanding of these adhesive interactions is also important to produce artificial tissues. Cell adhesions are formed by cell adhesion molecules on the cell surface such as integrins and cadherins which bind to the matrix and cadherins on neighboring cells, respectively [1]. These adhesion molecules transmit both physical and chemical signals between cells and their environment via the underlying cytoskeleton and intracellular signaling cascades [2].

## **1.1 Cell–cell adhesions**

Cell–cell connections induce and receive biochemical signals and contractile forces from adjacent cells, and it is through theses stresses that cellular and tissue homeostasis is maintained [3]. The most abundant and well-studied cell–cell adhesion molecules are the cadherins. Cadherins such as E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and P-cadherin, consist of five extracellular domains with a calcium-binding site between each domain (**Figure 1**). The cell–cell adhesion is initiated by the cadherins on adjacent cells forming homophilic interactions via the exchange of β-strands between the first extracellular domains [4] and from here the cadherin signal is transmitted into the cell via an intracellular tail domain. Force-dependent conformation changes in cadherins lead to the recruitment of binding partners such as α-catenin, β-catenin, and vinculin thereby conveying the chemical signal to the intracellular actomyosin network. These ensuing biomechanical and biochemical cascades direct scaffolding proteins toward cellular pathways regulating division, survival, structural morphologies [5, 6] epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cell-sorting, and collective cell migration [7].
