Studies on collective behaviour of gap junction channels

Gap junction provides low resistance pathways for cell-to-cell passive diffusion of ions, metabolites, second messengers etc. and thus, controls development, differentiation in embryonic tissues, and communication in adult tissues. It has been pointed out in our previous work that these passive diffusion channels behave cooperatively which in turn depends on the structural parameters and also membrane potentials. In the present paper, we have analyzed the multichannel bilayer electrophysiological data of rat liver gap junction Connexin 32 (Cx32) hemichannels. Through the measurements of relaxation time it has been demonstrated that one of the relaxation time constants follows a decay pattern with the number of channels open at various potentials applied across the bilayer membrane. This leads to the conclusion that the collective behaviour of rat liver gap junction hemichannels is cooperative in multichannel ensembles.