Depletion of ZNF185 causes delay of keratinocyte differentiation

Development of epidermis includes a complicated program of keratinocyte differentiation. Here we study a new membrane LIM-domain containing Zn-finger protein ZNF185 which is expressed in upper layers of human skin and is up-regulated during keratinocyte differentiation in vitro. Interestingly, depletion of ZNF185 causes delay of keratinocyte differentiation with decreased levels of FLG, LOR, LCEs expression. To study the role of ZNF185 in keratinocyte differentiation, we performed microarray expression profiling to identify the genes which expression is altered. Human normal epidermal keratinocytes (HEKn) we transiently knocked-down by RNA interference and induced for differentiation for 3 days.