Single channel currents of homo- and heterologous gap junctions between cardiac fibroblasts and myocytes.

Recently, the use of the double whole-cell patch-clamp technique enabled conductance measurements of single gap junctional channels. Different values have been measured in pairs of rat lacrimal cells (6), murine acinar cells and chinese hamster ovary cells (9), embryonic chick heart- (10) and neonatal rat heart myocytes (7). We here present evidence that the conductance of gap junction channels between two different cell types originating from the same tissue, neonatal rat heart, is different. In mixed cultures of cardiac fibroblasts and myocytes, gap junction channels between fibroblasts have a single channel conductance of only 22 pS, while those between myocytes have a conductance of 43 pS. Fibroblasts can be electrically coupled to myocytes through channels having an intermediate conductance of 29 pS, a value which matches very well with the theoretically expected conductance of a gap junction channel composed of a fibroblast- and a myoblast connexon (hemichannel). These data provide direct evidence on the single channel level that in heterologous gap junction channels the composing connexons retain their cell-specific properties.