Expression of C4.4A in an In Vitro Human Tissue-Engineered Skin Model

Figure 1

C4.4A in monolayer culture of human keratinocytes. (a, b) C4.4A expression in cultured human keratinocytes. Confinement of C4.4A to points of cell-cell contact is emphasized by arrows. (c) Colocalization of C4.4A (green) with the adherens junction protein β-catenin (red) in TES at day 28 of culture at the A/L interface. Corresponding phase contrast pictures are depicted in panels (a′), (b′), and (c′), respectively. Cell nuclei are stained with Hoechst (blue). Note that murine 3T3 fibroblasts were devoid of C4.4A expression (arrowhead). Open arrows point toward less differentiated keratinocytes at the periphery of the colony, which are not labeled for C4.4A. A/L, air-liquid; d, day; TES, tissue-engineered skin. Scale bar: (a) and (a′), 50 μm; (b), (b′), (c), and (c′), 25 μm.