Enteroendocrine cells are specifically marked by cell surface expression of claudin-4 in mouse small intestine.

ABSTRACT: Enteroendocrine cells are solitary epithelial cells scattered throughout the gastrointestinal tract and produce various types of hormones, constituting one of the largest endocrine systems in the body. The study of these rare epithelial cells has been hampered by the difficulty in isolating them because of the lack of specific cell surface markers. Here, we report that enteroendocrine cells selectively express a tight junction membrane protein, claudin-4 (Cld4), and are efficiently isolated with the use of an antibody specific for the Cld4 extracellular domain and flow cytometry. Sorted Cld4+ epithelial cells in the small intestine exclusively expressed a chromogranin A gene (Chga) and other enteroendocrine cell-related genes (Ffar1, Ffar4, Gpr119), and the population was divided into two

SUBMITTER: Nagatake T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3948345 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature