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Maturation of epidermal Langerhans cells: increased experssion of β‐and γ‐actin isoforms as a basis of specialized cell functions
Author(s) -
Ross R.,
Ross X. L.,
Längin T.,
ReskeKunz A. B.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.108
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0625
pISSN - 0906-6705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0625.1999.tb00307.x
Subject(s) - actin , microbiology and biotechnology , phalloidin , biology , blot , immunofluorescence , cytoskeleton , downregulation and upregulation , northern blot , actin cytoskeleton , cell culture , western blot , gene expression , cell , gene , immunology , biochemistry , antibody , genetics
Epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) represent immature dendritic cells. During in vitro culture in the presence of keratinocytes they mature into potenet immunostimulatory cells for naive T cells. This process is thought to simulate in vivo maturation of LC following activation by antigen contect. Maturation of LC is accompanied by morphological alteration. Applying a differential screening procedure we isolated differentially expressed cDNAs involved in the maturation events including cDNAs of the cytoskeletal actin isoforms β‐and γ‐actin. Stronger signals with hybridization probes derived from cultured LC compared with probes derived from freshly isolated LC indicate upregulation of actin expression. Upregulated expression of actin was confirmed by RT‐PCR, Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis. Staining with flurescence‐labelled and increase in F‐actin levels in cultured LC. Thus our data show that maturation of LC, which involves formation of dendritic structures and movement of formerly immobile cell, is accompanied by augmented expresion of actin and formation of additional actin filaments. Furthermore, actin mRNA, often used as reference to assess mRNA amounts for Northern blotting or competitive RT‐PCR because of its high and ubiquitous expression is an inappropriate standard for the analysis of LC and DC.