CDH1 and gastroesophageal reflux disease: 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].