Cultured epithelial cells of cornea, conjunctiva and skin: absence of marked intrinsic divergence of their differentiated states.

Keratinocytes of three different epithelia grown in cell culture express a large number of differentiation markers with either no differences or relatively small differences, depending on the species. Much of the distinctive phenotype of these epithelia in vivo must be due to external modulation and relatively little, at least in the case of the human, to permanent intrinsic divergence during development.