Meier Carola, Rosenkranz Katja
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Saarland University Homburg/Saar, Germany.
Department of Neuroanatomy and Molecular Brain Research, Ruhr University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Front Physiol. 2014 Mar 18;5:106. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2014.00106. eCollection 2014.
Pathological conditions of the brain such as ischemia cause major sensorimotor and cognitive impairments. In novel therapeutic approaches to brain injury, stem cells have been applied to ameliorate the pathological outcome. In several experimental models, including hypoxia-ischemia and trauma, transplantation of stem cells correlated with an improved functional and structural outcome. At the cellular level, brain insults also change gap junction physiology and expression, leading to altered intercellular communication. Differences in expression in response to brain injury have been detected in particular in Cx43, the major astrocytic gap junction protein, and its overexpression or deletion was associated with the pathophysiological outcome. We here focus on Cx43 changes in host tissue mediated by stem cells. Stem cell-induced changes in connexin expression, and consecutively in gap junction channel or hemichannel function, might play a part in altered cell interaction, intercellular communication, and neural cell survival, and thereby contribute to the beneficial effects of transplanted stem cells.
大脑的病理状况，如局部缺血，会导致严重的感觉运动和认知障碍。在脑损伤的新型治疗方法中，干细胞已被用于改善病理结果。在包括缺氧缺血和创伤在内的几种实验模型中，干细胞移植与功能和结构结果的改善相关。在细胞水平上，脑损伤也会改变缝隙连接的生理学和表达，导致细胞间通讯改变。特别是在主要的星形胶质细胞缝隙连接蛋白Cx43中，已检测到对脑损伤反应的表达差异，其过表达或缺失与病理生理结果相关。我们在此关注干细胞介导的宿主组织中Cx43的变化。干细胞诱导的连接蛋白表达变化，以及随之而来的缝隙连接通道或半通道功能变化，可能在改变细胞相互作用、细胞间通讯和神经细胞存活中发挥作用，从而有助于移植干细胞的有益效果。
