Figure 4.

Efgartigimod treatment protects keratinocyte monolayers against dissociation induced by hAK23 and 4B3 anti-Dsg3 antibodies. hTert keratinocytes were plated on 24-well plates, grown in KGM2 medium with 0.05 mM CaCl₂ until confluent, and then switched to KGM2 with 2 mM CaCl₂ for 24 h. The cells were left untreated, or efgartigimod, Fc-WT or Fc-IHH (all at final concentration of 25 µg/mL) was applied for 30 min prior to the 24 h treatment with the respective recombinant antibodies: (a) hAK23 (12.5 µg/mL) or an isotype-matched hIgG4 control (12.5 µg/mL); or (b) 4B3 (50 µg/mL) or an isotype-matched human IgG1 control (50 µg/mL). Monolayer dissociation assay was performed in triplicates, and the number of fragments was quantified using ImageJ software. A representative experiment is shown. The error bars show the SD of the mean values obtained from at least four independent experiments. Statistical analysis was done using two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post-test. Statistically significant differences are indicated by * = p ≤ 0.05; ** = p ≤ 0.01.