The bovine desmocollin family: a new gene and expression patterns reflecting epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation.

We have discovered a third bovine desmocollin gene, DSC3, and studied expression of all three desmocollin genes, DSC1, 2, and 3, by Northern blotting, RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. DSC1 is strongly expressed in epidermis and tongue papillae, showing a "skin"-type pattern resembling that previously described for keratins 1 and 10. Expression is absent from the epidermal basal layer but appears in the immediate suprabasal layers and continues uniformly to the lower granular layer. In tongue epithelium, expression is suprabasal and strictly localized to papillae, being absent from interpapillary regions. In other epithelial low level DSC1 expression is detectable only by RT-PCR. The distribution of Dsc1 glycoproteins, detected by an isoform-specific monoclonal antibody, closely reflects mRNA distribution in epidermis and tongue. DSC2 is ubiquitously expressed in epithelia and cardiac muscle. In stratified epithelia, expression appears immediately suprabasal, continuing weakly to the lower granular layer in epidermis and to just above half epithelial thickness in interpapillary tongue, oesophageal, and rumenal epithelia. DSC3 expression is restricted to the basal and immediately suprabasal layers in stratified epithelia. In deep rete ridges DSC expression strikingly resembles the distribution of stem, transit-amplifying, and terminally differentiating cells described by others. DSC3 expression is strongly basal, DSC2 is strong in 5-10 suprabasal layers, and then weakens to be superseded by strong DSC1. These results suggest that desmocollin isoform expression has important functional consequences in epithelial proliferation, stratification, and differentiation. The data also provide a standard for nomenclature of the desmocollins.