DISTINCTIVE GAP JUNCTION CHANNEL TYPES CONNECT WB CELLS, A CLONAL CELL-LINE DERIVED FROM RAT-LIVER

SPRAY, DC and CHANSON, M and MORENO, AP and DERMIETZEL, R and MEDA, P (1991) DISTINCTIVE GAP JUNCTION CHANNEL TYPES CONNECT WB CELLS, A CLONAL CELL-LINE DERIVED FROM RAT-LIVER. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, 260 (3). C513-C527. ISSN 0002-9513,

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Abstract

Gap junctions, dye coupling, and junctional conductance were studied in a cell line (WB) that is derived from rat liver and displays a phenotype similar to "oval" cells. In freeze-fracture replicas, two distinctive particle sizes were detected in gap junctional plaques. Immunocytochemical studies indicated punctate staining at membrane appositions using antibodies to connexin43 and to a brain gap junction-associated antigen (34 kDa). No staining was observed using antibodies prepared against rat liver gap junction proteins (connexins 32 and 26). Pairs of WB cells were electrically and dye coupled. Junctional conductance (g(j)) between cell pairs averaged approximately 10 nS; occasionally, g(j) was low enough that unitary junctional conductances (gamma-j) could be detected. Using a CsCl-containing electrode solution, distinctive gamma-j values were recorded: approximately 20-30 pS, approximately 80-90 pS, and the sum of the other sizes. The largest gamma-j events were apparently due to random coincident openings or closures of the smaller channels. Several treatments reduced g(j). Frequency distributions of gamma-j were unaltered by 2 mM halothane or 3.5 heptanol, but the sizes of intermediate and largest events were reduced slightly by 100 nM phorbol ester, and the relative frequency of the largest events was increased by 10-mu-M glutaraldehyde. We conclude that the distinctive gamma-j values represent openings and closures of two distinct types of gap junction channels rather than substrates of a single channel type; these unitary conductances may correspond to the dual immunoreactivity and to the two particle sizes seen in freeze fracture.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: CONDUCTANCE; PROTEIN; PERMEABILITY; HEPATOCYTES; INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION; ELECTRICAL COUPLING; DYE COUPLING; SINGLE CHANNELS; OVAL CELLS; CONNEXIN32; CONNEXIN43
Depositing User: Dr. Gernot Deinzer
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2022 08:46
URI: https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/55056

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