Expression of specific keratin markers by rabbit corneal, conjunctival, and esophageal epithelia during vitamin A deficiency.

作者：S. C. G. Tseng, Diane L. Hatchell, N S Tierney, Andrew Huang, Tung‐Tien Sun · 发表于：The Journal of Cell Biology · 年份：1984 · DOI：10.1083/jcb.99.6.2279 · 被引用次数：118 · 研究领域：Skin and Cellular Biology Research、Skin Protection and Aging、Silk-based biomaterials and applications

Using an in vivo rabbit model system, we have studied the morphological and biochemical changes in corneal, conjunctival, and esophageal epithelia during vitamin A deficiency. Light and electron microscopy showed that the three epithelia undergo different degrees of morphological keratinization. Corneal and conjunctival epithelia became heavily keratinized, forming multiple layers of superficial, anucleated cornified cells. In contrast, esophageal epithelium underwent only minor morphological changes. To correlate morphological alterations with the expression of specific keratin molecules, we have analyzed the keratins from these epithelia by the immunoblot technique using the subfamily-specific AE1 and AE3 monoclonal antikeratin antibodies. The results indicate that during vitamin A deficiency, all three epithelia express an AE1-reactive, acidic 56.5-kd keratin and an AE3-reactive, basic 65-67-kd keratin. Furthermore, the expression of these two keratins correlated roughly with the degree of morphological keratinization. AE2 antibody (specific for the 56.5- and 65-67-kd keratins) stained keratinized corneal epithelial sections suprabasally, as in the epidermis, suggesting that these two keratins are expressed mainly during advanced stages of keratinization. These two keratins have previously been suggested to represent markers for epidermal keratinization. Our present data indicate that they can also be expressed by other stratified epithelia during vitamin A deficiency-indu...