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Inverse relationship between connexin43 and desmin expression in cultured porcine aortic smooth muscle cells
- Source :
- European journal of cell biology. 78(9)
- Publication Year :
- 1999
-
Abstract
- Our previous work has shown that in vascular tissues the elastic medial regions express high levels of the gap junctional protein, connexin43, but low levels of desmin, while the muscular medial regions express low levels of connexin43 but high levels of desmin. It is uncertain, however, whether this regional difference at the tissue level extends down to the level of the individual cell, or reflects an averaged relationship of groups of cells of different connexin43 and desmin expression. The present study has addressed this question using cultured porcine aortic smooth muscle cells. Immunoconfocal microscopic analysis of single-labeled cells showed that while smooth muscle alpha-actin, calponin and vimentin were positively labeled in the majority of medial smooth muscle cells both in intact porcine aorta and corresponding cultured cells, desmin and connexin43 labeling was highly heterogeneous. In the cultured cells, 0.3-0.5% of cells were found to be desmin-positive, and quantitative analysis after double labeling for desmin and connexin43 revealed that the desmin-positive cells were smaller, and contained significantly lower numbers and smaller sizes of connexin43 gap-junctional spots than did desmin-negative cells. Our findings demonstrate that an inverse expression pattern of connexin43 and desmin holds true at the level of the individual cell. This suggests a close relationship between intrinsic phenotypic control and the regulation of connexin43 expression in the arterial smooth muscle cell.
- Subjects :
- Histology
Swine
Calponin
Cell
Connexin
Gene Expression
Vimentin
macromolecular substances
Muscle, Smooth, Vascular
Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Desmin
medicine
Animals
Vascular tissue
Aorta
Cells, Cultured
Microscopy, Confocal
biology
Calcium-Binding Proteins
Microfilament Proteins
Gap junction
Gap Junctions
Cell Biology
General Medicine
Molecular biology
Antigens, Differentiation
Immunohistochemistry
Actins
medicine.anatomical_structure
Connexin 43
cardiovascular system
biology.protein
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 01719335
- Volume :
- 78
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- European journal of cell biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f5b5f49ef61440afe170368f3637cfdc