To the Editor : Charcot–Marie–Tooth type 1 (CMT1), the most frequent hereditary peripheral neuropathy, is characterized by marked clinical and genetic heterogeneity (1). Mutations in genes coding for peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22 ; MIM 601097), myelin protein zero (MPZ/P0 ; MIM 159440) and connexin 32 or gap junction beta 1 (Cx32/GJB1 ; MIM 304040) cause CMT1A, CMT1B and CMTX, the most co...

This review article discusses mechanisms underlying impulse propagation in cardiac muscle with specific emphasis on the role of the cardiac cell-to-cell junction, called the "intercalated disc."The first part of this review deals with the role of gap junction channels, formed by connexin proteins, as a determinant of impulse propagation. It is shown that, depending on the underlying structure o...

BACKGROUND Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) describes the sudden, unexplained death of a baby during its first year of age and is the third leading cause of infant mortality. It is assumed that ≤20% of all SIDS cases are because of cardiac arrhythmias resulting from mutations in ion channel proteins. Besides ion channels also cardiac gap junction channels are important for proper conduction ...

Direct communication of neighboring cells by gap junction channels is essential for the development of tissues and organs in the body. Whereas vertebrate gap junctions are composed of members of the connexin family of transmembrane proteins, in invertebrates gap junctions consist of Innexin channel proteins. Innexins display very low sequence homology to connexins. In addition, very little is k...

The acquired immune response begins with Ag presentation by dendritic cells (DCs) to naive T cells in a heterocellular cell-cell contact-dependent process. Although both DCs and T cells are known to express connexin43, a gap junction protein subunit, the role of connexin43 on the initiation of T cell responses remains to be elucidated. In the present work, we report the formation of gap junctio...

We have observed, in our previous studies, that fluid flow increases gap junction-mediated intercellular coupling and the expression of a gap junction protein, connexin 43, in osteocyte-like MLO-Y4 cells. Interestingly, this stimulation is further enhanced during the poststress period, indicating that a released factor(s) is likely to be involved. Here, we report that the conditioned medium obt...

OBJECTIVE To date, studies in all populations showed that mutations in the gene of Gap junction protein beta 2 (GJB2) play an important role in non-syndromic autosomal recessive congenital hearing loss. The aim of this study was to evaluate GJB2 gene of patients with hearing loss in our region using deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing method and to demonstrate region-specific mutation and po...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The mutation of the gap junction protein beta 2 (GJB2) gene is the predominant cause of autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing loss. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the speech perception outcome after cochlear implantation according to the presence of a GJB2 mutation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS During the period from March 2004 to February 2005, 38 patients un...

A novel missense mutation in the gene for gap-junction protein α3 (GJA3) associated with autosomal dominant " nuclear punctate " cataracts linked to chromosome 13qA novel missense mutation in the gene for gap-junction protein α3 (GJA3) associated with autosomal dominant " nuclear punctate " cataracts linked to chromosome 13q.