The invasiveness of high-grade glioma is the primary reason for poor survival following treatment. Interaction between glioma cells and surrounding astrocytes are crucial to invasion. We investigated the role of gap junction mediated miRNA transfer in this context. By manipulating gap junctions with a gap junction inhibitor, siRNAs, and a dominant negative connexin mutant, we showed that functi...

Gap junction-mediated communication can modulate cell death in different tissues. In myocardium, gap junction communication is altered during ischemia, which contributes to the development of arrhythmias, but still allows synchronization of the onset of rigor contracture in the progression of injury. During reperfusion, gap junction communication allows cell-to-cell spread of hypercontracture a...

PURPOSE To determine the possible changes in the distribution of cholesterol in gap junction plaques during fiber cell differentiation and maturation in the embryonic chicken lens. The possible mechanism by which cholesterol is removed from gap junction plaques is also investigated. METHODS Filipin cytochemistry in conjunction with freeze-fracture TEM was used to visualize cholesterol, as rep...

this paper addresses synchronizing two coupled chaotic fitzhugh–nagumo (fhn) neurons with weakly gap junction under external electrical stimulation (ees). to transmit information among coupled neurons, by generalization of the integer-order fhn equations of the coupled system into the fractional-order in frequency domain using crone approach, the behavior of each coupled neuron relies on its pa...

In this paper, we present a microfluidic chip that is capable of measuring electrical conductance through gap junction channels in a 2-dimensional cell sheet. The chip utilizes a tri-stream laminar flow to create a non-conductive sucrose gap between the two conducting solutions so that electrical current can pass across the sucrose gap only through the cells. Using the chip, we tested the effec...

Electrical activation of the heart requires cell-cell transfer of current via gap junctions, arrays of densely packed protein channels that permit intercellular passage of ions and small molecules. Because current transfer occurs only at gap junctions, the spatial distribution and biophysical properties of gap junction channels are important determinants of the conduction properties of cardiac ...

The gap junction is a specialized contact between adjacent cells in a wide variety of tissues (1, 2) which is thought to mediate electrotonic coupling (3) . This junction is characterized by a hexagonal lattice of subunits which may be seen in lanthanum-impregnated, negative-stained, and freezefractured preparations (1) . A method for isolation of morphologically intact gap junctions from mouse...

Novikoff hepatoma cells provide an excellent model system for the study of gap junction assembly, a process that could be influenced by lipids and other factors at numerous points. Since it is possible to alter the cellular levels of cholesterol in these cells, it was added to the cells in serum-supplemented medium and changes in gap junction assembly were evaluated. Cells were dissociated and ...