Fig. 4. KazrinA overexpression impairs intercellular junction assembly. (A-J) Keratinocytes were transiently transfected with GFP (A-D) or HA-kazrinA (E-J), in medium containing 0.09 mM Ca²⁺. Twenty-four hours post-transfection, cells were incubated in medium containing 1.8 mM Ca²⁺ for 2 hours, then fixed and directly visualized for GFP (B,D; red) or labelled with antibodies specific for HA (F,H,J; red), desmoplakin (A,B,E-H; green) or E-cadherin (C,D,I,J; green). Asterisks indicate transfected cells. (A-H) single confocal slices; (I,J) composites of z-stacks. Bars, 40 µm. (K,L) Quantification of average pixel intensity of desmoplakin (K) and E-cadherin (L) immunostaining at cell-cell borders. Border between a kazrin-transfected cell and an untransfected or a kazrin-transfected cell is designated T:UT/T. Border between untransfected cells is designated UT:UT. Values are expressed relative to UT:UT. Data are the means ± s.d. of three independent experiments. Statistical significance was determined with paired Student's t-test (^*P<0.05; n=3).