Rabbit Anti-Human KRT8 Monoclonal Antibody, clone CQ7116

There is little information on the function of epididymal basal cells. These cells secrete prostaglandins, can metabolize radical oxygen species, and have apical projections that are components of the blood-epididymis barrier. The objective of this study was to develop a reproducible protocol to isolate rat epididymal basal cells and to characterize their function by gene expression profiling. Integrin-alpha6 was used to isolate a highly purified population of basal cells. Microarray analysis indicated that expression levels of 552 genes were enriched in basal cells relative to other cell types. Among these genes, 45 were expressed at levels of 5-fold or greater. These highly expressed genes coded for proteins implicated in cell adhesion, cytoskeletal function, ion transport, cellular signaling, and epidermal function, and included proteases and antiproteases, signal transduction, and transcription factors. Several highly expressed genes have been reported in adult stem cells, suggesting that basal cells may represent an epididymal stem cell population. A basal cell culture was established that showed that these basal cells can differentiate in vitro from keratin (KRT) 5-positive cells to cells that express KRT8 and connexin 26, a marker of columnar cells. These data provide novel information on epididymal basal cell gene expression and suggest that these cells can act as adult stem cells.

Keratin proteins constitute intermediate filaments and are the major differentiation products of mammalian epithelial cells. The epithelial keratins are classified into two groups, type I and type II and one member of each group is expressed in a given epithelial cell differentiation stage. Mutations in type I and type II keratin genes have now been implicated in three different human genetic disorders, epidermolysis bullosa simplex, epidermolytic hyperkeratosis, and epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma Members of the type I keratins are mapped to human chromosome 17, and the type II keratin genes are mapped to chromosome 12. To understand the organization of the type II keratin genes on chromosome 12, we isolated several yeast artificial chromosomes carrying these keratin genes and examined them in detail. We show that eight already known type II keratin genes are located in a cluster at 12q13, and their relative organization reflects their evolutionary relationship. We also determined that a type I keratin gene, KRT18, is located next to its partner, KRT8, in this cluster. Careful examination of the cluster also revealed that there may be a number of additional keratin genes at this locus that have not been described previously. (C) 1994 Academic Press,Inc.