Am J Physiol Cell Physiol Journal of Neurophysiology
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 261: C1001-C1009, 1991;
0363-6143/91 $5.00
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Blennerhassett, M. G.
Right arrow Articles by Garfield, R. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Blennerhassett, M. G.
Right arrow Articles by Garfield, R. E.

AJP - Cell Physiology, Vol 261, Issue 6 C1001-C1009, Copyright © 1991 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Effect of gap junction number and permeability on intercellular coupling in rat myometrium

M. G. Blennerhassett and R. E. Garfield
Department of Pathology, McMaster University Health Sciences Center, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Gap junctions (GJ) increase between myometrial cells immediately before labor. To provide evidence of their role in cell-to-cell coupling, we evaluated input resistance (Ro) and intercellular spread of Lucifer yellow (LY) in intact preparations of rat longitudinal myometrium of preterm, term, and antiprogesterone-treated preterm delivering animals. LY injected into cells from either term or preterm delivering rats (many GJ) spread rapidly to neighboring cells by 60 s, but in preparations from nondelivering controls required 4-6 min to become detectable in adjacent cells. Ro of cells in preterm nondelivering preparations was 24.1 +/- 0.8 (SE) M omega, but dropped to 12.0 +/- 0.4 M omega (P less than 0.05) at delivery, similar to preterm delivering tissues at 13.8 +/- 0.6 M omega. The putative GJ uncoupling agent octanol reversibly increased Ro of term- and preterm-delivering tissues fourfold (P less than 0.01) within 60 s, and Ro of preterm-nondelivering tissue was further increased so that Ro values were similar among the three classes. These increased Ro values are interpreted as decreased coupling. Both K+ depolarization and oxytocin (10(-8) to 10(-6) M) increased Ro of delivering tissues (P less than 0.05), suggesting that high levels of contractile agonists may lead to reduced cell-to-cell coupling. Therefore, myometrial coupling can be modulated over seconds via GJ permeability as well as over hours by GJ number.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Biol. Chem.Home page
C. H. George, J. M. Kendall, and W. H. Evans
Intracellular Trafficking Pathways in the Assembly of Connexins into Gap Junctions
J. Biol. Chem., March 26, 1999; 274(13): 8678 - 8685.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Visit Other APS Journals Online