Desmosomes represent one of the anchoring junctions mediating strong cell-cell contacts.Desmosomal plaque proteins including the head domain of plakophilin provide interaction sites for cytokeratin filaments (see references in Weiske et al.,2001). Proteolytic fragmentation of these proteins prevents binding of intermediate filaments and in consequence results in remodeling of the intermediate filament cytoskeleton (Weiske et al., 2001).Cleaved Plakophilin-1 appears to be impaired in supporting the formation and maintenance of desmosomes during apoptosis (Weiske et al., 2001). Caspase-3 inhibition prevents cleavage of Plakophilin-1, implicating Caspase-3 as the responsible endopeptidase (Weiske et al. 2001).