Cross-Talk between Hemidesmosomes and Focal Contacts: Understanding Subepidermal Blistering Diseases

Because hemidesmosomes and focal contacts (FCs) play major roles in epidermal wound healing and in the pathogenesis of subepidermal blistering diseases, it is of particular importance to understand their cross-talk in the regulation of their assembly and disassembly. In this issue, Ozawa et al. demonstrate that hemidesmosome-enriched protein complex (HPC) and FC dynamics are tightly coregulated in keratinocytes undergoing migration by employing HaCat cells that express fluorescent protein–tagged β4 integrin and α-actinin as markers of HPCs and FCs.