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Updated: May 8, 2026

Human Ovarian Surface Epithelium Organoids as a Platform to Study Tissue Regeneration
Published on: August 16, 2024
Fractalkine receptor is expressed in mature ovarian teratomas and required for epidermal lineage differentiation
Lisa Rooper1, Hilal Gurler, Andre A Kajdacsy-Balla
1Biopharmaceutical Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 833 S Wood Str, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. mvb@uic.edu.
Background:
The goal of this study was to determine a predominant cell type expressing fractalkine receptor (CX3CR1) in mature ovarian teratomas and to establish functional significance of its expression in cell differentiation.
Methods:
Specimens of ovarian teratoma and human fetal tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for CX3CR1expression. Ovarian teratocarcinoma cell line PA-1 was used as a model for cell differentiation.
Results:
We found that the majority of the specimens contained CX3CR1-positive cells of epidermal lineage. Skin keratinocytes in fetal tissues were also CX3CR1- positive. PA-1 cells with downregulated CX3CR1 failed to express a skin keratinocyte marker cytokeratin 14 when cultured on Matrigel in the presence of a morphogen, bone morphogenic protein 4 (BMP-4), as compared to those expressing scrambled shRNA.
Conclusions:
Here we demonstrate that CX3CR1 is expressed in both normally (fetal skin) and abnormally (ovarian teratoma) differentiated keratinocytes and is required for cell differentiation into epidermal lineage.
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