So when I pull my skin, what basically keeps the cells together are our decimosomes, and what allows water not to get inside are basically the tide junctions. Another location of Desmondomes in is the intestinal tissue, and we'll see why they're important when we discuss the intestinal system. So, basically, in animal cells, there are three major ways by which our individual cells connect to one another. We have our tide junctions, which create a watertight connection and basically seals one side of the cell so that nothing can get past this side and around the cell. So things actually have to move across the cell membrane, and it also keeps the integral proteins from moving across to the other side of our cell membranes. We have the gap junctions, which basically are the channels or the tunnels through adjacent cells that allow the movement of small molecules and ions.