The Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) is a goat-like mammal that inhabits mountainous environments. The HJ1.Ov cell line was established at The Naval Biosciences Laboratory in Oakland, California from ovarian tissue excised from a female Himalayan tahr. The cells, which grow adherently to glass and polymer surfaces in culture, exhibit epithelial characteristics. Epithelial cells tend to form specialized cell-cell junctions that bind them tightly together. This enables epithelial tissue to serve as a protective uninterrupted barrier that covers organs and interior and exterior surfaces of the body.

Epithelial tissue that surrounds the ovaries is continuous with the peritoneum, the serous membrane that lines the abdominal cavity. The tissue is commonly referred to as the germinal epithelium, which is a misnomer. When the term was coined, it was generally thought that the tissue, which is a simple cuboidal epithelium, was the site of germ cells. Though this supposition has since been disproved, the term is still widely employed.

The proximity of intermediate filaments and the cytoskeletal filamentous actin network was visualized by treating the fixed and permeabilized culture of HJ1.Ov cells shown in the digital image above with mouse anti-vimentin primary antibodies followed by goat anti-mouse secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa Fluor 568. F-actin was subsequently labeled with Alexa Fluor 633 conjugated to phalloidin, and cell nuclei were counterstained with SYTOX Green. Images were recorded in grayscale with a 12-bit digital camera coupled to a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope equipped with bandpass emission fluorescence filter optical blocks. During the processing stage, individual image channels were pseudocolored with RGB values corresponding to each of the fluorophore emission spectral profiles, with the exception of Alexa Fluor 633, which was pseudocolored blue.