it was thought previously that cardiac muscle gap junctions provide low-resistance connections between cells and permit the local-circuit current to flow. some evidences show that myocardial cells may not require low-resistance connections for successful propagation of the action potential (ap). it seems that some other types of mechanisms must be involved in ap propagation. in this article, we...

background: gap-junctional intercellular communication (gjic) is implicated in physicological processes and it is vitally important for granulosa cell (gc) differentiation and oocyte growth. we investigated the expression of connexin 43 (cx43), a gap junctional protein, in normal and androstenedione-induced polycystic ovary (pco), the effects of androstenedione on cx43 expression, gjic and prog...

Introduction: Gap junctions are specialized cell–cell contacts between eukaryotic cells through which they communicate. This type of communication has the potential to modulate memory process. We evaluated the effects of the gating of the hippocampal CA1 area gap junction channels on memory consolidation, using passive avoidance task. Materials and Methods: 72 adult male Wistar rats were distri...

Congenital hearing loss with many genetic and environmental causes affects 1 in 1000 newborns. Mutations in the GJB2(Gap Junction Beta-2) gene encoding the gap junction protein connexin 26 have been established as the main cause of autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing loss. The aim of this study was to study the frequency of one mutation (35delG) of GJB2 gene in Kerman non-syndromic deaf p...

Although gap junction plaque assembly has been extensively studied, mechanisms involved in plaque disassembly are not well understood. Disassembly involves an internalization process in which annular gap junction vesicles are formed. These vesicles undergo fission, but the molecular machinery needed for these fissions has not been described. The mechanoenzyme dynamin has been previously demonst...