Occludin knockdown is not sufficient to induce transepithelial macromolecule passage.

ABSTRACT: Occludin, a tight junction protein, has been reported to regulate barrier function - particularly the leak pathway for larger solutes - in epithelia. Therefore, we aimed to precisely define its role in macromolecule passage at single cell-cell junctions. A combination of varying occludin expression by transient and stable knockdown including systematic seeding strategies was employed to achieve a broad and defined pattern of variance in occludin expression over epithelia. This variance model enabled us to examine occludin function in the leak pathway using global and local analysis, i.e. to analyze macromolecule flux across epithelia and macromolecule passage at single-cell level. Macromolecular flux was found not to correlate with occludin expression in intestinal epithelial cells. In fac

SUBMITTER: Richter JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6619991 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature