CDH1 and infection: To analyze their capacity to induce E-cadherin ectodomain shedding during infection, epithelial cells were colonized with selected pathogens and E-cadherin cleavage was investigated through detection of the loss of full length E-cadherin (E-cadFL) in whole cell lysates and the formation of the soluble N-terminal fragment (E-cadNTF) in the supernatants of infected cells.