title: Current trends in salivary gland tight junctions.
abstract: Tight junctions form a continuous intercellular barrier between epithelial cells that is required to separate tissue spaces and regulate selective movement of solutes across the epithelium. They are composed of strands containing integral membrane proteins (e.g., claudins, occludin and tricellulin, junctional adhesion molecules and the coxsackie adenovirus receptor). These proteins are anchored to the cytoskeleton via scaffolding proteins such as ZO-1 and ZO-2. In salivary glands, tight junctions are involved in polarized saliva secretion and barrier maintenance between the extracellular environment and the glandular lumen. This review seeks to provide an overview of what is currently known, as well as the major questions and future research directions, regarding tight junction expression, organization and function within salivary glands.
authors: School of Dentistry, University of Utah , Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors: Olga J
authors: OJ
authors: Baker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D062725:Tight Junction Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D019108:Tight Junctions / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D062725:Tight Junction Proteins
keywords: cell adhesion; epithelium; saliva secretion; salivary glands; tight junction