Role of Gap Junctions and Hemichannels in Parasitic Infections

Table 1

Summary of published works on the effect of parasite infections on the gap junction activity or connexin expression.

Infectious; agent	Strain	Cell type	Effects	Experimental techniques	Ref.
Trypanosome cruzi	Tulahuen	Primary culture of rat neonatal cardiomyocytes	↓ dye coupling	Junctional conductance and dye transfer of Lucifer yellow	[50]
			↓ Cx43 expression at junctional membrane regions	Immunofluorescence
Trypanosome cruzi	Tulahuen	Primary culture of rat neonatal astrocytes	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow	[49]
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43)
		Primary culture of rat leptomeningeal cells	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 and Cx26 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43, Cx26)
	Brazil	Murine infection	↓ Cx43 expression at 4 weeks p.i.	Immunofluorescence
Trypanosome cruzi	Y	Primary culture of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes	↑ Cx43 expression and phosphorylation at 1 hour p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)	[50]
			↓ Cx43 expression at 48 and 72 hours p.i.	Immunostaining (Cx43)
		Murine infection	↓ Cx43 in atria and ventricle at 11 days p.i.	Confocal microscopy (Cx43)
			↓ Cx43 plaque distribution
Trypanosome cruzi	Colombian	C57BL/6 mice	↓ Cx43 expression at 28 and 32 days p.i.	Immunohistochemistry (Cx43)	[54]
		B6.129-Tnfraf1a (p55/60)-deficient mice	= Cx43 expression at 28 and 32 days p.i.
Trypanosome cruzi	Colombian	C3H/He (H-2K) mice	↓ Cx43 expression at 150 and 180 days p.i.	Immunohistochemistry (Cx43)	[51]
		Met-RANTES-treated C3H/He (H-2K) mice	= Cx43 expression at 150 and 180 days p.i.
Trypanosome cruzi	Y	Primary culture of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes	↓ Cx43 expression at 48 hours p.i.	Immunohistochemistry (Cx43)	[53]
		Left ventricle fragments from the heart of CCC patients	↓ Cx43 plaque number
			↓ Cx43 plaque size
Trypanosome cruzi	Colombian	Primary culture of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes	↓ Cx43 gene	Microarray assay	[61]
			↑ Cx37 gene
			= Cx40 and Cx45 gene
Toxoplasma gondii	ME49	Primary culture of rat neonatal astrocytes	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow	[49]
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43)
		Primary culture of rat leptomeningeal cells	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 and Cx26 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43, Cx26)
		Murine infection	↓ Cx43 expression at 12 weeks p.i.	Immunofluorescence