FIGURE 6.

COMP and FACIT collagens XII and XIV show partial codistribution in the papillary dermis of human skin. Skin biopsies from healthy human donors (n ≥ 3) were coimmunostained with antibodies recognizing human collagen XII (A, green) and human COMP (B, red) raised in guinea pig and rabbit, respectively. Nuclei were stained using DAPI (blue). Coimmunofluorescence (C, merge) demonstrated extensive codistribution of COMP and collagen XII in the papillary dermis, just below the epidermis. Consecutive skin samples were coimmunostained with antibodies recognizing human collagen XIV (D, green) and human COMP (E, red) raised in guinea pig and rabbit, respectively. Collagen XIV showed deposition throughout the dermis with strong subepidermal signals, which partially codistributed with COMP (F, merge). The broken line indicates the dermoepidermal junctional zone. epi and derm depict the epidermis and dermis, respectively. Scale bar = 10 μm.