103 Autophagy activation is required for the maintenance of skin tight junction barrier

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that autophagy contributes to the epidermal differentiation; however, the role of autophagy in epidermal tight junction (TJ) barrier remains unclear. To evaluate the role of autophagy in the maintenance of skin TJ barrier, we knocked out autophagy in human primary keratinocytes by infecting cell with autophagy-related gene 3 (Atg3) C264S mutant adenovirus. In these autophagy-deficient keratinocytes, we found that the mRNA expression and/or protein expression of TJ-related proteins such as claudin-1 and ZO-1, and the stratum corneum proteins such as filaggrin and loricrin were significantly decreased.