Gene expression analysis of Japanese macaque reveals potential markers of lip vermillion epithelium

Our histological findings showed that vermillion is present in the lip of Japanese macaque. In addition, the immunostaining pattern of K10 and SPRR3 of the lip of Japanese macaque is similar to that of a human. Thus, the transcriptome analysis of Japanese monkey can provide several unique genes specific to vermillion keratinocytes, which is required to develop a human lip/vermillion in vitro model. We examined histological and immunohistochemical characteristics as well as gene expression pattern of the lip vermillion of Japanese macaque in comparison with epidermal and oral keratinocytes.