Abstract
HeLa cells seem not to be junctionally coupled when probed with techniques such as Lucifer yellow spreading and/or ionic coupling measured with three inserted microelectrodes. When investigated with double whole-cell patch-clamp measurements, HeLa cells in monolayer cultures were electrically coupled in 39% of the cases with very low transjunctional conductances (average one to five open channels). These gapjunction channels had a single-channel conductance γ= 26±6 pS and were voltage-gated with an equivalent gating charge z=3.1±1.5 for a voltage of half-maximal inactivation U o=49±10 mV. The voltage-dependent component represents only 31±8% of the total junctional conductance. The voltage-insensitive conductance is characterized by a residual open probability p o(∞)=0.34±0.12, which corresponds to a ratio G min/G max=0.50±0.12. Dissociation of monolayer cells into cell pairs yielded about 58% coupled cell pairs with no notably altered single-channel properties.
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Eckert, R., Dunina-Barkovskaya, A. & Hülser, D.F. Biophysical characterization of gap-junction channels in HeLa cells. Pflügers Arch. 424, 335–342 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384361
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384361