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Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 281: C75-C88, 2001;
0363-6143/01 $5.00
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Vol. 281, Issue 1, C75-C88, July 2001

Intercellular communication in cultured human vascular smooth muscle cells

Hong-Zhan Wang1, Nancy Day1, Mira Valcic1, Ken Hsieh1, Scott Serels1, Peter R. Brink2, and George J. Christ1,3

Departments of 1 Urology and 3 Physiology and Biophysics, Institute for Smooth Muscle Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx 10461; and 2 Department of Physiology and Biophysics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794

Intercellular communication through gap junction channels plays a fundamental role in regulating vascular myocyte tone. We investigated gap junction channel expression and activity in myocytes from the physiologically distinct vasculature of the human internal mammary artery (IMA, conduit vessel) and saphenous vein (SV, capacitance vessel). Northern and Western blots documented the presence of connexin43 (Cx43) in frozen tissues and cultured cells from both vessels. Northern blots also confirmed the presence of Cx40 mRNA in cultured IMA and SV myocytes. Dual whole cell patch-clamp experiments revealed that macroscopic junctional conductance was voltage dependent and characteristic of that observed for Cx43. In the majority of records, in both vessels, single-channel activity was dominated by a main-state conductance of 120 pS, with subconducting events comprising less than 10% of the amplitude histograms. However, some records showed "atypical" unitary events that had a conductance similar to Cx40 (~140-160 pS), but gating behavior like that of Cx43. As such, it is conceivable that the presence and coexpression of Cx40 and Cx43 in IMA and SV myocytes may result in heteromeric channel formation. Nonetheless, in terms of gating, Cx43-like behavior clearly dominates.

connexins; internal mammary artery; saphenous vein; connexin40; connexin43


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