https://phys.org/news/2019-01-cells-pressure.html

"Cadherins provide an initial signal for the 'handshake' between cells, but they are not the primary keeper of the connection," says UC Santa Barbara professor and mechanical engineer Beth Pruitt, who studies mechanobiology and is working to gain a greater understanding of how cells combine to form tissues and maintain their integrity under the normal loads they experience.

Understanding the chemo-mechanical mechanisms that drive such biological action would better position scientists to develop treatments for conditions and diseases that arise when something goes wrong in the recognition process. That includes cancer metastasis, a process in which cancer cells lose their preference for staying with "like" cells and migrate out of a tumor; or defective development or wound healing, in which like cells fail to bond to build or repair healthy tissues.