Assembly of Hair Keratins in Transfected Epithelial Cells
December 1996
in “
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
”
TLDR Mouse hair keratins mHa1 and mHb4 can't form a strong network on their own in cells.
The study investigated the assembly of mouse hair keratins mHa1 and mHb4 in transfected epithelial cells. When introduced into PtK2 cells, these keratins formed ring-like aggregates around the nucleus, disrupting the endogenous keratin network and causing it to collapse. In contrast, in rat epidermal keratinocytes, mHa1 and mHb4 co-localized with the existing keratin cytoskeleton. This indicated that mHa1/mHb4 could not independently form an extensive keratin network, unlike other keratin pairs such as K5/K14 and K8/K18, suggesting differential abilities among keratins to form cytoplasmic networks.
