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Perturbing plasma membrane hemichannels attenuates calcium signalling in cardiac cells and HeLa cells expressing connexins

Verma, Vandana, Hallett, Maurice Bartlett ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8197-834X, Leybaert, Luc, Martin, Patricia E. and Evans, William Howard 2009. Perturbing plasma membrane hemichannels attenuates calcium signalling in cardiac cells and HeLa cells expressing connexins. European Journal of Cell Biology 88 (2) , pp. 79-90. 10.1016/j.ejcb.2008.08.005

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Abstract

Many cell signalling pathways are driven by changes in cytosolic calcium. We studied the effects of a range of inhibitors of connexin channels on calcium signalling in cardiac cells and HeLa cells expressing connexins. Gap 26 and 27, peptides that mimic short sequences in each of the extracellular loops of connexin 43, and anti-peptide antibodies generated to extracellular loop sequences of connexins, inhibited calcium oscillations in neonatal cardiac myocytes, as well as calcium transients induced by ATP in HL-1 cells originating from cardiac atrium and HeLa cells expressing connexin 43 or 26. Comparison of single with confluent cells showed that intracellular calcium responses were suppressed by interaction of connexin mimetic peptides and antibodies with hemichannels present on unapposed regions of the plasma membrane. To investigate how inhibition of hemichannels in the plasma membrane by the applied reagents was communicated to calcium store operation in the endoplasmic reticulum, we studied the effect of Gap 26 on calcium entry into cells and on intracellular IP3 release; both were inhibited by Gap 26. Calcium transients in both connexin 43- and connexin 26-expressing HeLa cells were inhibited by the peptides suggesting that the extended cytoplasmic carboxyl tail domain of larger connexins and their interactions with intracellular scaffolding/auxiliary proteins were unlikely to feature in transmitting peptide-induced perturbations at hemichannels in the plasma membrane to IP3 receptor channel central to calcium signalling. The results suggest that calcium levels in a microenvironment functionally connecting plasma membrane connexin hemichannels to downstream IP3-dependent calcium release channels in the endoplasmic reticulum were disrupted by the connexin mimetic peptide, although implication of other candidate hemichannels cannot be entirely discounted. Since calcium signalling is fundamental to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis, connexin hemichannels emerge as therapeutic targets open to manipulation by reagents interacting with external regions of these channels.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Medicine
Subjects: R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Connexin mimetic peptides; Gap 26; Gap 27; Intracellular calcium stores; Myocytes; HL-1 cells
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0171-9335
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2022 10:33
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/24756

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