Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Author's Takes
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • 100th Anniversary of Insulin's Discovery (Jan 2021)
    • Hypoxia-inducible factors in disease pathophysiology and therapeutics (Oct 2020)
    • Latency in Infectious Disease (Jul 2020)
    • Immunotherapy in Hematological Cancers (Apr 2020)
    • Big Data's Future in Medicine (Feb 2020)
    • Mechanisms Underlying the Metabolic Syndrome (Oct 2019)
    • Reparative Immunology (Jul 2019)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • Recently published
    • In-Press Preview
    • Commentaries
    • Concise Communication
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoint
    • Top read articles
  • Clinical Medicine
  • JCI This Month
    • Current issue
    • Past issues

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Author's Takes
  • Recently published
  • In-Press Preview
  • Commentaries
  • Concise Communication
  • Editorials
  • Viewpoint
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Top
  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a letter
  • Share this article
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need Help? E-mail the JCI
  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Advertisement

Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI115617

Calcium and potassium are important regulators of barrier homeostasis in murine epidermis.

S H Lee, P M Elias, E Proksch, G K Menon, M Mao-Quiang, and K R Feingold

Department of Medicine and Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco 94121.

Find articles by Lee, S. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine and Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco 94121.

Find articles by Elias, P. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine and Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco 94121.

Find articles by Proksch, E. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine and Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco 94121.

Find articles by Menon, G. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine and Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco 94121.

Find articles by Mao-Quiang, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine and Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco 94121.

Find articles by Feingold, K. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Published February 1, 1992 - More info

Published in Volume 89, Issue 2 on February 1, 1992
J Clin Invest. 1992;89(2):530–538. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI115617.
© 1992 The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published February 1, 1992 - Version history
View PDF
Abstract

Topical solvent treatment removes lipids from the stratum corneum leading to a marked increase in transepidermal water loss (TEWL). This disturbance stimulates a variety of metabolic changes in the epidermis leading to rapid repair of the barrier defect. Using an immersion system we explored the nature of the signal leading to barrier repair in intact mice. Initial experiments using hypotonic to hypertonic solutions showed that water transit per se was not the crucial signal. However, addition of calcium at concentrations as low as 0.01 mM inhibited barrier repair. Moreover, both verapamil and nifedipine, which block calcium transport into cells, prevented the calcium-induced inhibition of TEWL recovery. Additionally, trifluoroperazine or N-6-aminohexyl-5-chloro-1-naphthalenesulfonamide, which inhibit calmodulin, prevented the calcium-induced inhibition of TEWL recovery. Although these results suggest an important role for calcium in barrier homeostasis, calcium alone was only modestly effective in inhibiting TEWL recovery. Potassium alone (10 mM) and phosphate alone (5 mM) also produced a modest inhibition of barrier repair. Together, however, calcium and potassium produced a synergistic inhibition of barrier repair (control 50% recovery vs. calcium + potassium 0-11% recovery in 2.5 h). Furthermore, in addition to inhibiting TEWL recovery, calcium and potassium also prevented the characteristic increase in 3-hydroxy-3-glutaryl CoA reductase activity that occurs after barrier disruption. Finally, the return of lipids to the stratum corneum was also blocked by calcium and potassium. These results demonstrate that the repair of the epidermal permeability barrier after solvent disruption can be prevented by calcium, potassium, and phosphate. The repair process may be signalled by a decrease in the concentrations of these ions in the upper epidermis resulting from increased water flux leading to passive loss of these ions.

Images.

Browse pages

Click on an image below to see the page. View PDF of the complete article

icon of scanned page 530
page 530
icon of scanned page 531
page 531
icon of scanned page 532
page 532
icon of scanned page 533
page 533
icon of scanned page 534
page 534
icon of scanned page 535
page 535
icon of scanned page 536
page 536
icon of scanned page 537
page 537
icon of scanned page 538
page 538
Version history
  • Version 1 (February 1, 1992): No description

Article tools

  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a letter
  • Share this article
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need Help? E-mail the JCI

Metrics

  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Go to

  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
Advertisement
Advertisement
Follow JCI:
Copyright © 2021 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts