The Structure and Permeability of Isolated Hepatocyte Gap Junctions (original) (raw)

1. Daniel A. Goodenough
2. Department of Anatomy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Excerpt

The gap junction, or nexus, is an intercellular contact shared by two adjacent cells where the plasma membranes come into close association and display a highly differentiated structure. This structure is visualized as a hexagonal lattice of subunits (connexons) using colloidal lanthanum (Revel and Karnovsky 1967), negative stain (Benedetti and Emmelot 1968; Goodenough and Revel 1970; Goodenough and Stoeckenius 1972) and freeze-fracture (Goodenough and Revel 1970). The gap junction is thought to be the site of low resistance to intercellular passage of ions and molecules (Bennett 1973). This hypothesis is supported by experimental studies involving manipulations that electrically uncouple cells and concomitantly result in the disruption of the gap junction ultrastructure (Barr et al. 1965, 1968; Pappas et al. 1971; Goodenough and Gilula 1972, 1974).

A method previously reported for the isolation of mouse hepatocyte gap junctions (Goodenough and Stoeckenius 1972) has been expanded to handle large volumes of material...