TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kannapin, Felix
A1  - Schmitz, Tobias
A1  - Hansmann, Jan
A1  - Schlegel, Nicolas
A1  - Meir, Michael
T1  - Measurements of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) are affected by junctional length in immature epithelial monolayers
T2  - Histochemistry and Cell Biology
N2  - The measurement of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) is a common technique to determine the barrier integrity of epithelial cell monolayers. However, it is remarkable that absolute TEER values of similar cell types cultured under comparable conditions show an immense heterogeneity. Based on previous observations, we hypothesized that the heterogeneity of absolute TEER measurements can not only be explained by maturation of junctional proteins but rather by dynamics in the absolute length of cell junctions within monolayers. Therefore, we analyzed TEER in epithelial cell monolayers of Caco2 cells during their differentiation, with special emphasis on both changes in the junctional complex and overall cell morphology within monolayers. We found that in epithelial Caco2 monolayers TEER increased until confluency, then decreased for some time, which was then followed by an additional increase during junctional differentiation. In contrast, permeability of macromolecules measured at different time points as 4 kDA fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran flux across monolayers steadily decreased during this time. Detailed analysis suggested that this observation could be explained by alterations of junctional length along the cell borders within monolayers during differentiation. In conclusion, these observations confirmed that changes in cell numbers and consecutive increase of junctional length have a critical impact on TEER values, especially at stages of early confluency when junctions are immature.
KW  - Caco2 cells
KW  - TEER
KW  - barrier models
KW  - impedance spectroscopy
KW  - permeability
Y1  - 2021
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/26746
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-267465
SN  - 1432-119X
VL  - 156
IS  - 6
ER  -