The hemidesmosome is an adhesion structure of the epidermal-dermal junction in keratinocytes. When keratinocytes migrate laterally or upward to differentiate, they must control the formation and disintegration of the hemidesmosomes. When keratinocytes are cultured in low-calcium (below 0.1 mM) medium, all cells behave like basal cells, adhere to the culture dish, and proliferate without differentiation. The calcium addition induces the differentiation. A bullous pemphigoid antigen, 180-kDa BPA, has been shown to be a component of the hemidesmosome. Using a monoclonal antibody to the 180-kDa BPA and a human squamous cell carcinoma cell line (DJM-1 cells), the fate of hemidesmosomes was studied after the addition of calcium to low-calcium-grown cells and 12-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) to high-calcium (1.87 mM) grown cells by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. The antigen was distributed evenly as fine dots on the entire ventral surface of low-calcium cells, whereas they formed a peculiar, concentric ring or arch arrangement on the ventral surface of high-calcium cells. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed the deposits of gold particles at sites on the membrane surface, where some filamentous or electron-dense materials were associated, although the complete structure of hemidesmosomes was not formed. They deposited directly onto the membrane surface in low-calcium cells and with a distance of 20-50 nm from the membrane surface in high-calcium cells. The calcium addition caused a profound reduction of the 180-kDa BPA-positive area for 30 to 120 min and then formed the high-calcium-ring pattern after 4 to 6 h. A similar calcium response was seen in normal human keratinocytes. TPA (16 nM) treatment caused disintegration of the ring pattern in high-calcium DJM-1 cells. This was inhibited with a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor. H7 (20 microM). These results suggest that the hemidesmosome is a dynamic structure and PKC can be one of the major factors in controlling the hemidesmosome, since it is known that the low-high calcium shift induces a calcium influx and a PKC activation, and TPA activates PKC in keratinocytes.