Cadherins and their associated cytoplasmic proteins, catenins, are critical to the maintenance of normal tissue integrity and the suppression of cancer invasion. The cadherin profile in malignant mesothelioma (MM) is not well defined and the role of the cadherin-catenin system in the pathogenesis of MM remains to be determined. By means of Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry the expression of E (epithelial)-, N (neural)-, P (placental)-cadherin, and alpha-, beta- and gamma-catenins was studied in nine human MM cell lines and five human mesothelial cell lines. Mesothelial cells consistently expressed only N-cadherin and alpha- and beta-catenins. All but one MM cell line were N-cadherin-positive and all of them were also positive for alpha- and beta-catenins. E-cadherin was found in six (66.7%) and gamma-catenin in seven (77.8%) MM cell lines. Five of these E-cadherin-positive lines co-expressed N-cadherin and the remaining one was also P-cadherin-positive. Double immunofluorescence staining revealed the plasma membrane co-localisation of both cadherin types in MM cell lines that co-expressed E- and N-cadherin or E- and P-cadherin, respectively. Immunoprecipitation showed complexes of beta-catenin with both cadherin types when co-expressed. The results point to upregulation of E-cadherin and gamma-catenin in most MM cases and demonstrate that cadherin expression is more heterogeneous and less mutually exclusive in MM compared with the mesothelium, although the biological significance of this finding remains unclear.