Ultrastructural, immunohistological and biochemical characterization of cultured mouse corneal epithelial cells.

We developed a method to culture mouse corneal epithelium. Cultured cells tested by 1-D-SDS-PAGE exhibited protein mobility patterns similar to freshly isolated epithelia. Western blots with antibodies broadly recognizing cytokeratins showed a similar pattern for both fresh and cultured cells, but only the fresh sample stained with J7, specific for a 55-kD 'corneal' cytokeratin. Cultured cells examined at confluency by transmission electron microscopy exhibited desmosomal contacts typical of epithelia. The ability to culture mouse corneal epithelial tissue will be useful for studies requiring large amounts of material by reducing animal numbers.