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Connexins and Secretion

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Connexins

Abstract

Four decades ago, a serendipitous finding revealed that a membrane-impermeable tracer could be rapidly exchanged between salivary gland cells. Since this first demonstration of direct cell–cell communication in a secretory system, gap junctions, connexins, and coupling have been shown to be obligatory attributes of all multicellular glands. The distribution of various connexin isoforms has now been mapped in most of these organs and shown to differ in endocrine and exocrine systems, because of a specific transcriptional control of the connexin genes. Many studies have provided further circumstantial evidence of a role for connexin-dependent signaling in the secretory function of a variety of glands. This function has been directly demonstrated in vivo in only a few systems, in which the mechanism linking connexin signaling to secretion has started to be elucidated. However, this mechanism, and implications for the physiological and pathophysiological function of secretory cells remains to be unraveled.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (310000-109402), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (1-2005-46 and 1-2007-158), Novo Nordisk, and the Geneva Program for Metabolic Disorders (GeMet).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism, University of Geneva, C.M.U., 1 rue Michel Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland

    Paolo Meda

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  1. Sabine Bavamian
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  2. Philippe Klee
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  3. Florent Allagnat
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  4. Jacques-Antoine Haefliger
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  5. Paolo Meda
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Correspondence to Paolo Meda .

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  1. New Jersey Medical School UMDNJ, Newark, NJ, USA

    Andrew L. Harris  & Darren Locke  & 

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Bavamian, S., Klee, P., Allagnat, F., Haefliger, JA., Meda, P. (2009). Connexins and Secretion. In: Harris, A.L., Locke, D. (eds) Connexins. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-489-6_26

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