Transmission electron micrographs of desmosomes in mouse epidermis. Normal (a) and wound-edge (b) mouse epidermis after exposure to LCM-EGTA for 6 hours (a) and 1 hour (b). Note that the desmosomes in (a) are intact and two that are sectioned precisely transversely exhibit entirely unaltered structure, whereas in (b) the desmosomal halves (arrows) have lost adhesion and separated (compare with Figure 3(d)). Thus the desmosomes in (a) are calcium independent and those in (b) are calcium dependent. (c) An example of transversely sectioned desmosomes from untreated wound-edge epidermis showing absence of midline but plaque structure appears unchanged at this resolution. ML, midline; ODP, outer dense plaque; IDP, inner dense plaque; IF, intermediate filaments. Bar: 0.1 m. Reproduced from the study by Garrod et al. in [55].
