| In higher vertebrates, from amphibians to humans, epidemial maturation is a conserved developmental process. Using adult epidemial tissue and an established keratinocyte cell line, the mouse Nkx-2.3 homeobox gene was demonstrated, for the first time, to be expressed in mouse epidermal keratinocytes. Under the normal culture condition, the spontaneous aggregation phenomenon, a common initiation step of ES cell differentiation, and the induction of mouse adult K1 keratin, a marker of mature epidermal keratinocytes, were both observed in vitro when the Xenopus Nkx-2.3 gene was stably transfected into a mouse pluripotent P19 EC cell line. The induction of mouse K1 keratin by using its Xenopus orthologous gene in the mouse P19 cell implies that Nkx-2.3 may play... |
