FIG 6.

Localization of nectin-1, ZO-1, and E-cadherin in vestibular epithelia. (a) Sections of vestibular mucosa were stained for nectin-1 (green) or (b) costained for ZO-1 (red) or (c) E-cadherin (green) and keratin 14 (magenta), respectively, with DAPI (blue) as nuclear counterstain. Nectin-1 is rather weakly detected in the basal layers, while ZO-1 is found in the intermediate and superficial layers and E-cadherin throughout the stratified epithelium. Costaining of the junctional proteins ZO-1 and E-cadherin illustrates their presence in the intermediate layers. Two-fold magnifications of the boxed areas are added. The white line indicates the apical mucosal surface. Single immunofluorescence (a) and confocal projections and merged images (b, c, and d) are shown. Bars represent 25 μm in panel a and 50 μm in panels b, c, and d.