Alteration of medial-edge epithelium cell adhesion in two Tgf-beta3 null mouse strains.

Although palatal shelf adhesion is a crucial event during palate development, little work has been carried out to determine which molecules are responsible for this process. Furthermore, whether altered palatal shelf adhesion causes the cleft palate presented by Tgf-beta3 null mutant mice has not yet been clarified. Here, we study the presence/distribution of some extracellular matrix and cell adhesion molecules at the time of the contact of palatal shelves in both wild-type and Tgf-beta3 null mutant palates of two strains of mice (C57/BL/6J (C57), and MF1) that develop cleft palates of different severity.