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Full-Text Articles in Diseases

Mutant Cx43 In Skin Differentiation And Disease, Jared M. Churko Jul 2011

Mutant Cx43 In Skin Differentiation And Disease, Jared M. Churko

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Connexin43 (Cx43) is expressed within keratinocytes, dermal fibroblasts, and the hair follicle epithelium. Since Cx43 is so widely expressed in resident cells of the skin, we speculated that this connexin would play an essential role in skin homeostasis, hair growth and wound healing. Mutations in the gene which encodes Cx43 lead to a disease called oculodentodigital dysplasia (ODDD) and patients expressing the frame-shift mutants (fs230 or fs260) develop a skin disease called palmar plantar hyperkeratosis. In addition, patients with ODDD often develop hair which is dry, sparse, and slow growing. To study skin abnormalities associated with ODDD, hair growth and …


Aggregated Dsred-Tagged Cx43 And Over-Expressed Cx43 Are Targeted To Lysosomes In Human Breast Cancer Cells, H. Qin, Q. Shao, Daniel Belliveau, D. Laird Dec 2000

Aggregated Dsred-Tagged Cx43 And Over-Expressed Cx43 Are Targeted To Lysosomes In Human Breast Cancer Cells, H. Qin, Q. Shao, Daniel Belliveau, D. Laird

Daniel J. Belliveau

To investigate if either wild-type or aggregated Cx43 is abnormally targeted to lysosomes in human breast tumor cells, we examined the fate of DsRed-tagged Cx43 and over-expressed Cx43 in communication-deficient HBL-100 and MDA-MB-231 cells. DsRed-tagged Cx43 was assembled into gap junctions in control normal rat kidney cells that express endogenous Cx43 but not in Cx43-negative HBL-100 cells. However, when HBL-100 cells were engineered to coexpress wild-type Cx43 a population of DsRed-tagged Cx43 was rescued and assembled into gap junctions. Co-expression of wild-type Cx26 failed to rescue the assembly of DsRed-tagged Cx43 into gap junctions. Immunolocalization studies revealed that DsRed-tagged Cx43 …


Regional Differences In Connexin32 And Connexin43 Messenger Rnas In Rat Brain, C. Naus, Daniel Belliveau, J. Bechberger Dec 1989

Regional Differences In Connexin32 And Connexin43 Messenger Rnas In Rat Brain, C. Naus, Daniel Belliveau, J. Bechberger

Daniel J. Belliveau

The regional distribution of gap junction mRNAs was examined in the adult rat brain. The level of connexin43 mRNA is more abundant than connexin32, being homogeneously distributed throughout different regions of brain. In contrast, there is dramatic heterogeneity in the level of connexin32 mRNA, with the highest level in the hindbrain. These results suggest that the gap junction genes are differentially expressed in regions of the adult rat brain.