Figure 1

Characterization of equine keratinocytes. A. Immunofluorescence analysis of cytokeratin and vimentin expression in equine keratinocytes. Lamellar cells were grown in both high and low calcium conditions while skin keratinocytes are grown only in high calcium conditions. Nuclear staining with DAPI is shown for skin keratinocytes in middle panel, as these cells stained negative for vimentin Scale bar = 30 μm. Cell morphology images are phase contrast photographs of skin and lamellar cells. Scale bar = 10 μm. Images are representative of 3 independent experiments. B. Immunoblots of skin and lamellar whole cell lysates demonstrating expression of cytokeratins detected using antibody AE1/AE3 which recognizes both acidic and basic groups of cytokeratins. HeLa cell and equine skin fibroblast lysates are used as positive and negative controls, respectively, for cytokeratin expression. Images are representative of two independent experiments.