= Mikio Furuse
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<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.<A single gene product, claudin-1 or -2, reconstitutes tight junction strands and recruits occludin in fibroblasts by Mikio Furuse and others>[Abstract: transfected mouse L fibroblasts and freeze-fracture replicas]{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>.
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