Chemical contaminants or their metabolites may bind to and react with keratin proteins in the stratum corneum of the skin. Here, we present a tape-stripping method for the removal and quantification of keratin from the stratum corneum for normalization of extracted concentrations of naphthalene (as a marker for jet fuel exposure) from 12 human volunteers before and after exposure to jet fuel (J...

Dividing populations of stratified and simple epithelial tissues express keratins 5 and 14, and keratins 8 and 18, respectively. It has been suggested that these keratins form a mechanical framework important to cellular integrity, since their absence gives rise to a blistering skin disorder in neonatal epidermis, and hemorrhaging within the embryonic liver. An unresolved fundamental issue is w...

Keratin and collagen are ones of the most abundant proteins which can be used in a variety of biomedical application due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. Even though, keratin and collagen biomaterials are very high potential for tissue engineering applications. But, the major disadvantages of the natural biomolecules are their poor mechanical properties. Therefore it must be modi...

We report here the discovery that retinoids are potent regulators of epithelial morphology and keratin expression in cultured human mesothelial cells. When LP-9 cells are cultured in medium supplemented with vitamin A-depleted serum, they grow with an extreme spindle-shaped morphology and synthesize abundant levels of vimentin, but very little keratin. When retinoic acid is added to the medium ...

To determine the mechanism of action of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) during metamorphosis of the amphibian epidermis, we have investigated the developmental activation of the 63-kD keratin genes in the frog Xenopus laevis. These genes code for three closely related keratins that first appear in the larval epidermis and accumulate during metamorphosis to become the most abundant pro...

BACKGROUND Keratins are important structural proteins found in skin, hair and nails. Keratin Intermediate Filaments are major components of corneocytes, nonviable horny cells of the Stratum Corneum, the outermost layer of skin. It is considered that interactions between unstructured domains of Keratin Intermediate Filaments are the key factor in maintaining the elasticity of the skin. RESULTS...

The organization of intermediate filaments in cultured epithelial cells was rapidly and radically affected by intracellularly injected monoclonal antikeratin filament antibodies. Different antibodies had different effects, ranging from an apparent splaying apart of keratin filament bundles to the complete disruption of the keratin filament network. Antibodies were detectable within cells for mo...

The term 'keratin' is generally accepted to refer to the epithelial keratins of soft and hard epithelial tissues such as: skin, cornea, hair and nail. Since their initial characterization, the total number of mammalian keratins has increased to 54, including 28 type I and 26 type II keratins. Inherited defects that weaken the keratin load-bearing cytoskeleton produce phenotypes characterized by...

The 8-nm keratin filament is a major component of the cytoskeleton of epithelial cells and epithelial-derived cancers (carcinomas). Recently, it has been shown that the pattern of keratins produced by an esophageal epithelial cell undergoes change upon malignant transformation. In order to evaluate the potential importance of these differences in providing improved diagnostic techniques for pat...

Keratin 5 and keratin 14 have been touted as the hallmarks of the basal keratin networks of all stratified squamous epithelia. Absence of K14 gives rise to epidermolysis bullosa simplex, a human blistering skin disorder involving cytolysis in the basal layer of epidermis. To address the puzzling question of why this disease is primarily manifested in skin rather than other stratified squamous e...