Similarly, AJC protein and differentiation marker E-cadherin-deficient mice featured several manifestations of asthma, such as progressive epithelial damage, loss of ciliated cells, zones of epithelial denudation, decreased (ZO)-1 expression, and goblet cell metaplasia, globally indicating that the loss of E-cadherin plays a role in the development of asthma epithelial features. The gene discussed is CDH1; the disease is asthma.