Tongue dorsal epithelia exhibit a highly specialized structure. In order to characterize biological features of tongue dorsal epithelia, expression pattern of cytokeratins and adhesion molecules in human normal tongue were analyzed. Positive reaction with monoclonal antibodies for cytokeratins AE 3, AE 5, No.5/6, and 903 was observed in the basal cell layer, the spinous cell layer and the keratinized layer, while CK 1 stained the basal cell layer and the spinous cell layer. Positive reaction with No.4 and No.13 was observed in the spinous cell layer of the interpapillal region, but no reaction was seen in the papillal region. The expression of integrin a2 was observed at the cell membrane of the basal cell layer and the spinous cell layer, and those of as and as were observed at the cell membrane of the basal cell layer in the interpapillal region. However, positive reaction with anti-a5 antibody was also seen in the spinous cell layer as well as basal cell layer in the interpapillal region. The localizations of as and 484 were demonstrated at the basal cell surface of the basal cell layer. The expressions of E-cadherin and desmoglein were observed at the cell membrane of the basal cell layer and the spinous cell layer, while that of P-cadherin in the basal cell layer only. Our results clearly demonstrated that there are significant differences in the expression patterns of cytokeratins and adhesion molecules between the region of papillae and interpapillal epithelia.
