Ordered Assembly of the Adhesive and Electrochemical Connections within Newly Formed Intercalated Disks in Primary Cultures of Adult Rat Cardiomyocytes
Figure 2
Early remodeling of the intercalated disks of isolated adult rat ventricular cardiomyocytes in primary culture. (a) One day post plating, PKP2 (green) and N-cadherin (red) relocalize from the intercalated disks to the lateral sarcolemma. (b)–(e) By day 3 post plating, very immature cell-cell contacts have begun to form between the spreading cardiomyocytes. N-cadherin (red) specifically localizes to these contact sites before PKP2 (green). Note that these new cell contacts predominantly contain either N-cadherin (arrowheads in (b)–(f)) or both N-cadherin and PKP2 ((b)–(f): yellow) but not PKP2 alone. Scale bars are 20 m (b) and 10 m (c)–(f).
