Mikio Furuse investigated the molecular construction of tight junctions. In a 1998 study, introducing claudin-1 or claudin-2 into fibroblasts that normally lack tight junctions produced networks of junction-like strands at contacts between cells. Immunofluorescence located the introduced proteins, while freeze-fracture imaging revealed the strand architecture.[ref]
The experiment demonstrated that either claudin could build a key structural feature in a simplified cellular setting. Recruitment of occludin further distinguished a strand-forming component from another associated junctional protein.
- A single gene product, claudin-1 or -2, reconstitutes tight junction strands and recruits occludin in fibroblasts by Mikio Furuse and others
- Claudin-based tight junctions are crucial for the mammalian epidermal barrier: a lesson from claudin-1-deficient mice by Mikio Furuse and others
- Occludin: a novel integral membrane protein localizing at tight junctions by Mikio Furuse and others
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