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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/1999//579 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 145, Number 3, , 1999 579-588

Regular Articles

Claudin-11/OSP-based Tight Junctions of Myelin Sheaths in Brain and Sertoli Cells in Testis



Kazumasa Morita*,{ddagger}, Hiroyuki Sasaki||,¶, Kazushi Fujimoto§, Mikio Furuse*, and Shoichiro Tsukita*

* Department of Cell Biology, {ddagger} Department of Dermatology, and § Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606, Japan; || Laboratory of Cell Biology, KAN Research Institute Inc., Minami-Kaneda, Suita, Osaka 564, Japan; and Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of DNA Medicine, Jikei University School of Medicine, Nishi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105, Japan

Members of the newly identified claudin gene family constitute tight junction (TJ) strands, which play a pivotal role in compartmentalization in multicellular organisms. We identified oligodendrocyte-specific protein (OSP) as claudin-11, a new claudin family member, due to its sequence similarity to claudins as well as its ability to form TJ strands in transfected fibroblasts. Claudin-11/OSP mRNA was expressed in the brain and testis. Immunofluorescence microscopy with anti–claudin-11/OSP polyclonal antibody (pAb) and anti-neurofilament mAb revealed that in the brain claudin-11/OSP-positive linear structures run in a gentle spiral around neurofilament-positive axons. At the electron microscopic level, these linear structures were identified as the so-called interlamellar strands in myelin sheaths of oligodendrocytes. In testis, well-developed TJ strands of Sertoli cells were specifically labeled with anti–claudin-11/OSP pAb both at immunofluorescence and electron microscopic levels. These findings indicated that the interlamellar strands of oligodendrocyte myelin sheaths can be regarded as a variant of TJ strands found in many other epithelial cells, and that these strands share a specific claudin species, claudin-11/OSP, with those in Sertoli cells to create and maintain the repeated compartments around axons by oligodendrocytes.

Key Words: oligodendrocyte • myelin sheath • tight junction • Sertoli cell • claudin-11 • oligodendrocyte-specific protein

Abbreviations used in this paper: E-face, extracellular face; GST, glutathione-S-transferase; OSP, oligodendrocyte-specific protein; P-face, protoplasmic face; pAb, polyclonal antibody; TJ, tight junction.

The first two authors contributed equally to this work.


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