Cleavage of adherens junction protein E-cadherin has been observed in GERD biopsies [47] and E-cadherin proteolysis promotes over-expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which further disrupt epithelial integrity and contribute to GERD severity, Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer [48,49,50,51,52,53]. Here, CDH1 is linked to Barrett esophagus.