Referenced in: none

Automatically associated channels: ClC4 , ClCA2

Title: Gene expression and immunolocalisation of a calcium-activated chloride channel during the stratification of cultivated and developing corneal epithelium.

Authors: Che J Connon, Satoshi Kawasaki, Melody Liles, Noriko Koizumi, Kenta Yamasaki, Takahiro Nakamura, Andrew J Quantock, Shigeru Kinoshita

Journal, date & volume: Cell Tissue Res., 2006 Jan , 323, 177-82

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16158324

Abstract
The spatial and temporal localisation of a calcium-activated chloride channel (CLCA) and its mRNA was investigated, during the in vivo and in vitro development of stratified epithelia, by fluorescence immunohistochemistry and quantitative polymerase chain reaction in embryonic chicken corneas and the expansion of excised human corneal stem cells on amniotic membrane. Single-layered human epithelial cultures on amniotic membrane and early day embryonic chicken corneas expressed relatively little human CLCA2 or its chicken homologue. However, as the epithelium in both models matured and the number of cell-layers increased, the gene expression level and protein staining intensity increased, primarily within the basal cells of both the cultured and embryonic tissues. These results demonstrate that human CLCA2 protein and mRNA expression are elevated during epithelial stratification, suggesting that this protein plays a role in the growth of multi-layered corneal epithelia during both natural development and tissue cultivation.