Tight Junctions (IMAGE)

National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Tight Junctions

Caption

Tight junctions seal the gaps between neighboring cells to form epithelial barrier. In epithelial cells lacking claudins, the barrier against small molecules is disrupted but the barrier against large molecules is still maintained. In epithelial cells lacking both claudins and JAM-A, the space between neighboring cells is widened, and the barrier against small and large molecules is disrupted.

Credit

Tetsuhisa Otani

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