A New Perspective on Intercalated Disc Organization: Implications for Heart Disease
Figure 1
(A) Transmission electron microscopy of intercalated disc in the normal mouse heart, showing the plasma membranes of the adjacent cardiomyocytes with a region structurally resembling a desmosome (arrow) anchoring intermediate filaments, and fascia adhaerens-like structure anchoring predominantly bundles of actin filaments (arrowheads). (B) and (C) Immunoelectron microscopy of the myocardium of mouse heart, showing desmoplakin (DP) antibody labeling with silver amplification at cell-cell junctions. Note that DP immunogold label is enriched in plaques of the junctions. Higher label intensity of DP is desmosome-like structure (the right hand junction in Figure 1), and the fascia adhaerens-like junction is shown in less intensity of DP labeling (the left hand junction in Figure 1). A continuous and equal intensity of DP labeling shows the hybrid junctions (Figure 1) [16]. Figures 1 and 1 was originally published in “The Journal of Cell Biology, Grossman et al., 2004. doi:10.1083/jcb.200402096’’ [16].
