Down regulation of immuno-detectable cardiac connexin-43 in BALB/c mice following acute fasting

• Published in: International journal of cardiology Vol. 136; no. 1; pp. 99 - 102
• Main Authors: McLachlan, Craig S, Almsherqi, Zakaria A, Mossop, Peter, Suzuki, Jinya, Leong, See Ting, Deng, Yuru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ireland Ltd 24-07-2009
• Subjects: Acute starvation; Animals; Cardiac myocyte; Cardiovascular; Connexin 43 - antagonists & inhibitors; Connexin 43 - biosynthesis; Connexin 43 - ultrastructure; Connexin-43; Down-Regulation - physiology; Endocardium - chemistry; Endocardium - ultrastructure; Fasting - physiology; Female; Heart Ventricles - chemistry; Heart Ventricles - ultrastructure; Immunohistochemistry; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Myocardium; Myocytes, Cardiac - chemistry; Myocytes, Cardiac - ultrastructure; Papillary Muscles - chemistry; Papillary Muscles - ultrastructure; Protein Transport - physiology; Time Factors; Acute starvation; Myocardium; Connexin-43; Cardiac myocyte
• ISSN: 0167-5273; 1874-1754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2008.03.098

Abstract Acute starvation effects for connexin-43 protein expression, in the heart, had not been previously explored. Hence we examined acute fasting on the myocardial immuno-histochemical expression of connexin-43 in 3 groups of 8-week old female BALB/c mice. Groups consisted of control mice ( n = 5), fasting for 24 h ( N = 5) and 48 h ( N = 3). Under light microscopy all control fed cases revealed the presence of some immuno-detectable staining for connexin-43 that is either present or weakly observed in some or all of the regions of interest, that include the cross-sectional left ventricular sub-endocardium, mid-myocardium and papillary muscle. Whereas mice that underwent 24 or 48 h of acute starvation, connexin-43 expression was either difficult to detect visually ( N = 3) or was completely absent ( N = 5) at 40× magnification using a light microscope. In starved mice with no membrane staining for connexin-43 we observed an increase in the intracellular accumulation of cytoplasmic connexin-43 expression.