Although the downregulation of E-cadherin and desmoglein in human squamous cell carcinoma HSC-4 cells is not extensive (34), the transfection of cells with the Snail construct used in the present study has been shown to induce EMT in a number of cell lines of different origin, including canine kidney epithelial MDCK cells (28,29), the human epidermoid carcinoma cell line, A431 (8,29), the human squamous cell carcinoma cell line, HSC5 (35) and the murine embryonal carcinoma cell, P19 (Izawa et al, unpublished data). The gene discussed is CDH1; the disease is squamous cell carcinoma.