RESEARCH ARTICLE Claudin-2 Knockout by TALEN-Mediated Gene Targeting in MDCK Cells: Claudin-2 Independently Determines the Leaky Property of Tight Junctions in MDCK Cells

Tight junctions (TJs) regulate the movements of substances through the paracellular path-way, and claudins are major determinants of TJ permeability. Claudin-2 forms high conduc-tive cation pores in TJs. The suppression of claudin-2 expression by RNA interference in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) II cells (a low-resistance strain of MDCK cells) was shown to induce a three-fold increase in transepithelial electrical resistance (TER), which, however, was still lower than in high-resistance strains of MDCK cells. Because RNA interference-mediated knockdown is not complete and only reduces gene function, we con-sidered the possibility that the remaining claudin-2 expression in the knockdown study caused the lower TER in claudin-2 knockdown cells. Therefore, we investigated the effects of claudin-2 knockout in MDCK II cells by establishing claudin-2 knockout clones using tran-scription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), a recently developed genome editing method for gene knockout. Surprisingly, claudin-2 knockout increased TER by more than 50-fold in MDCK II cells, and TER values in these cells (3000–4000Ωcm2) were compara-ble to those in the high-resistance strains of MDCK cells. Claudin-2 re-expression restore