Nonerythroid membrane skeletal proteins in normal and diseased human skin

Abstract

A number of reports have described the presence and localization of membrane skeletal proteins in nonerythroid tissues and cultured cells. Interactions of these proteins, which have been extensively characterized in erythrocytes, may be physiologically important in other cell types. This review focuses on recent developments concerning proteins analogous to erythrocyte spectrin, protein 4.1, adducin and ankyrin in epidermal keratinocytes, and discusses their significance from physiological and pathological stand points. Keratinocyte proteins are involved in a wide variety of functions such as the cell-to-cell and cell-to-substratum adhesion, stratification, and maintenance of the cell shape. In epidermal keratinocytes, these nonerythroid membrane skeletal proteins may play a role in maintaining the polarity of membrane proteins by connecting them to the cytoskeleton, regulating cell-cell interdigitations and stabilizing newly synthesized cell membranes before elaboration of cell-cell interdigitations. Furthermore, altered expression and distribution of these proteins may be important in the pathogenesis of skin disease such as psoriasis.