Keratins are a diverse group of structural proteins that form the intermediate filament network responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of keratinocytes. In humans, there are around 30 keratin families divided into two groups, namely, acidic and basic keratins, which are arranged in pairs. They are expressed in a highly specific pattern related to the epithelial type and stage of c...

Extracellular keratinase isolated from Aspergillus flavus K-03 was immobilized on calcium alginate. The properties and reaction activities of free and immobilized keratinase with calcium alginate were characterized. The immobilized keratinase showed proteolytic activity against soluble azo-casein and azo-keratin, and insoluble feather keratin. Heat stability and pH tolerance of keratinase were ...

A simple culture technique is described for obtaining homogeneous populations of differentiating epidermal cells from adult amphibian skin. This population of cells continues its normal differentiation, namely keratinization, in vitro. By the third day of culture more than 99-9% of the cells in the population contain immunoreactive keratin. During the next 5-7 days of culture these cells synthe...

Simple epithelial keratins (SEKs) are found primarily in single-layered simple epithelia and include keratin 7 (K7), K8, K18-K20, and K23. Genetically engineered mice that lack SEKs or overexpress mutant SEKs have helped illuminate several keratin functions and served as important disease models. Insight into the contribution of SEKs to human disease has indicated that K8 and K18 are the major ...

Hair perfumes are becoming a trend all over the world and new cosmetic formulations have been developed to address this recent need. In present study, we system for controlled delivery of on hair, based zein, protein derived from maize, keratin. The Keratin:Zein particles, obtained using different strategies proportions zein keratin, presented high stability along storage, related with presence...

PURPOSE Expression of the K3-K12 keratin pair characterizes the corneal epithelial differentiation. To elucidate the role of keratin 12 in the maintenance of corneal epithelium integrity, the authors bred mice deficient in keratin 12 by gene-targeting techniques. METHODS One allele of murine Krt1.12 gene was ablated in the embryonic stem cell line, E14.1, by homologous recombination with a DN...

An extracellular keratinase from Bacillus pumilus KS12 was purified by DEAE ion exchange chromatography. It was a 45 kDa monomer as determined by SDS PAGE analysis. It was found to be an alkaline, serine protease with pH and temperature optima of 10 and 60°C, respectively. It was thiol activated with two- and eight-fold enhancement in presence of 10 mM DTT and β-mercaptoethanol, respectively. I...

Extramammary Paget disease is a rare intraepithelial neoplasm of the vulvar, penoscrotal, or perianal skin. No effective therapies for metastatic disease have been reported, and prognosis for metastatic disease is poor.Here, we report the case of an Asian man who was initially diagnosed with extramammary Paget disease of the scrotum. Three years later, the patient presented to hospital with pan...

Bowen’s disease (BD) is a non-melanoma skin cancer with several histological subtypes. Herein we describe a case of a 35-year-old woman with a 4-cm diameter crusted plaque on the parietal scalp region. She had the lesion for 2 years. It had previously been histologically diagnosed as pemphigus vulgaris and only treated with a topical cream. The lesion progressively became thicker and larger. A ...

The importance of protein phosphatases in the maintenance of cytoskeletal structure is supported by the serious liver injury caused by microcystin-LR, a hepatotoxic inhibitor of type-1 and type-2A serine/threonine protein phosphatases. We used the microcystin-LR-induced cell injury as a model to study the roles of protein dephosphorylation in maintaining cytoskeletal structure and cellular inte...