Pattern of oral cytokeratins: I. SDS-electrophoretic analysis of the frequency of cytoskeletal keratins in the normal human mucosa of mouth.

In the SDS-electrophoretic pattern of cytokeratins of the normal human mouth mucosa one has to distinguish between the cytokeratins which occur continually and stamp the organ and site specificity of pattern, from those not always detectable. The cytokeratins no. 5, 6/11, and 14/15 are solidly expressed in the whole oral mucosa, no. 1 only in the regions forming a stratum corneum, no. 3 and 16 in the masticatory mucosa, and no. 8 in gingiva and the lining mucosa. Moreover, no. 16 and 18 in the lining mucosa and no. 2, 4, 17, and 18 in the masticatory mucosa appear as minor components with interindividually varying frequency. The highest variability of the cytokeratin pattern exists in the specialized mucosa.