REVIEWS  7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRANSGLUTAMINASES AND PROTEIN CROSSLINKING REACTIONS
Ferrara (Italy), September 14-17, 2002 

Minerva Biotecnologica 2002 June;14(2):165-9

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Transglutaminases in skin biology

Ahvazi B., Boeshans K., Jang S. I., Kalinin A. E., Steinert P. M.

Laboratory of Skin Biology, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Dur­ing ­their ter­mi­nal dif­fe­ren­ti­a­tion pro­grams, all strat­i­fied squa­mous epi­the­lia assem­ble an elab­orate insol­u­ble bar­ri­er struc­ture, gener­i­cal­ly ­termed the corn­i­fied ­cell enve­lope (CE), on the ­inside of ­their plas­ma mem­brane at the ­cell periph­ery. ­This struc­ture pro­vides a ­vital phys­i­cal and/or bio­me­chan­i­cal bar­ri­er for the ­mature tis­sue and organ­ism. The CE is com­posed of sev­er­al ­defined struc­tu­ral pro­teins ­that ­become ­cross-­linked togeth­er by the ­action of one or ­more trans­glu­tam­i­nase (­TGase) ­enzymes. ­Recent stud­ies on the com­plex­ity of the fam­i­ly of ­TGase ­enzymes and the ­initial ­draft of the ­human ­genome ­have ­revealed the pres­ence of ­nine ­TGase-­like ­genes. Of ­these, six ­active ­genes/­enzymes are now ­known to be ­expressed in epi­the­lial ­cells. ­This bewil­der­ing com­plex­ity strong­ly ­implies ­that the prop­er assem­bly of the CE is ­indeed ­vital for sur­vi­val.