Male Wistar rats (body mass, 200–250 g) were obtained from Seac
Yoshitomi (Fukuoka, Japan). Pentobarbital sodium was obtained from
Abbott Laboratories (North Chicago, IL), and 0.4% (wt/vol)
oxybuprocaine hydrochloride and 0.3% (wt/vol) ofloxacin ophthalmic
solutions were from Santen Pharmaceutical (Osaka, Japan). Mouse
monoclonal antibodies to connexin43 were obtained from Chemicon
(Temecula, CA), mouse monoclonal antibodies to desmoglein 1 + 2 from
Progen Biotechnik (Heidelberg, Germany), mouse monoclonal antibodies to
E-cadherin from Transduction Laboratories (Lexington, KY), rabbit
polyclonal antibodies to occludin from Zymed (South San Francisco, CA),
rabbit polyclonal antibodies to laminin-1 from LSL (Tokyo, Japan),
tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate (TRITC)-conjugated antibodies to
rabbit IgG and whole rabbit serum from Cappel Organon Teknika (Durham,
NC), fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated antibodies to either
mouse or rabbit IgG from ICN (Aurora, OH), and BALB/c mouse control
ascites fluid from Cedarlane (Hornby, Ontario, Canada). Silane-treated
slides were obtained from Dako (Carpinteria, CA), optimal temperature
cutting (OCT) compound from Sakura Finetechnical (Tokyo, Japan), bovine
serum albumin (BSA) fraction V from Nacalai Tesque (Kyoto, Japan), and
Vectashield mounting medium from Vector Laboratories (Burlingame, CA).