Gap junctions and connexins: potential contributors to the immunological synapse

Abstract

Gap junctional communication is a widespread mechanism for metabolic coupling of adjoining cells. In the immune system, evidence has built up showing that lymphocytes possess the protein building blocks of gap junctions, the connexins. The most widespread is connexin 43, but connexin 40 is also present in secondary lymphoid organs. Inhibitors of gap junctional communication, especially the highly specific connexin mimetic peptides, have been shown to decrease the secretion of immunoglobulins and cytokines by T and B lymphocyte cocultures, indicating that connexins may play a fundamental role in lymphocyte physiology. Traditionally, connexins function when assembled into gap junction-intercellular channels. However, the possibility is now arising that gap junction hemichannels, previously viewed as plasma membrane precursors of gap junctions, are also involved in the release from cells of small metabolites, e.g., adenosine 5′-triphosphate and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide+, and this opens up a second, possible paracrine function for connexins detected in lymphocytes. The increasing structural and functional evidence points to a potential role that lymphocyte gap junctional intercellular communication may play within the complex signaling components of the immunological synapse.