An extended synthetic oligonucleotide (58-mer) has been used to identify and characterize a human liver gap junction cDNA. The cDNA is 1,574 bases long and contains the entire coding region for a gap junction protein. In vitro translation of the RNA products of this cDNA is consistent with it coding for a 32,022-D protein. Southern blot analysis indicates that the gap junction gene is present a...

X-ray crystallographic methods and electron microscope image analysis have been used to correlate the structure and the chemical composition of gap junction plaques isolated intact from mouse liver. The requirement that the interpretations of X-ray, electron microscope, and chemical measurements be consistent reduces the uncertainties inherent in the separate observations and leads to a unified...

The E8 open reading frame of bovine papillomavirus type 4 encodes a small hydrophobic polypeptide that contributes to primary cell transformation by conferring to cells the ability to form foci and to grow in low serum and in suspension. Wild-type E8 binds in vitro to ductin, a component of gap junctions, and this binding is accompanied by a loss of gap junction intercellular communication in t...

Thin sections of rabbit granulosa, human SW-13 adrenal cortical adenocarcinoma, and mouse B-16 melanoma cells revealed an apparent single-layered basket of 4to 7-nm filaments surrounding cytoplasmic gap junction vesicles . This interpretation was based upon apparent longitudinal, cross, and en face sections of structures surrounding the vesicle profiles in tissue treated with tannic acidglutara...

Cisplatin treatment has an overall 19% response rate in animal models with malignant tumors. Increasing gap junction activity in tumor cells provides the targets to enhance antineoplastic therapies. Previously, a new class of substituted quinolines (PQs) acts as gap junction enhancer, ability to increase the gap junctional intercellular communication, in breast cancer cells. We examined the eff...

Adrenal cortical steroidogenesis and proliferation are thought to be modulated by gap junction-mediated direct cell-cell communication of regulatory molecules between cells. Such communication is regulated by the number of gap junction channels between contacting cells, the rate at which information flows between these channels, and the rate of channel turnover. Knowledge of the factors regulat...

Integration of vascular endothelial function relies on multiple signaling mechanisms, including direct cell-cell communication through gap junctions. Gap junction proteins expressed in the endothelium include connexin37, connexin40, and connexin43. To investigate whether individual endothelial cells in vivo express all three connexin types and, if so, whether multiple connexins are assembled in...

Gap junctional communication is important in many physiological processes, including growth control, patterning, and the synchronization of cell-to-cell activities. It has been difficult to study the synthesis and assembly of gap junctions due to their low abundance. To overcome this limitation, baby hamster kidney cells (BHK) have been transfected with a human β1 (Cx32) connexin cDNA construct...

The propagation of mechanically induced intercellular calcium waves (ICW) among osteoblastic cells occurs both by activation of P2Y (purinergic) receptors by extracellular nucleotides, resulting in "fast" ICW, and by gap junctional communication in cells that express connexin43 (Cx43), resulting in "slow" ICW. Human osteoblastic cells transmit intercellular calcium signals by both of these mech...

Gap junction channels mediate direct cell-cell communication via the exchange of second messengers, ions, and metabolites from one cell to another. Mutations in several human connexin (cx) genes, the subunits of gap junction channels, disturb the development and function of multiple tissues/organs. In particular, appropriate function of Cx43 is required for skeletal development in all vertebrat...