Intercellular Connections
- Intercellular connections are specialized contacts that attach neighboring cells or allow cells to communicate.
- Tight junctions are intercellular connections that join adjacent cells, especially epithelial cells.
- Zonulae occludentes are another name for tight junctions.
- Epithelial cells are surface-lining cells, so tight junctions help control what can pass between cells in epithelial sheets.
- A solute is a dissolved substance that may move through fluid or across a membrane.
- Tight junctions can provide an intercellular pathway for solutes, but the degree of passage depends on solute size, charge, and other chemical properties.
- Relatively impermeable tight junctions allow little solute movement between cells.
- The renal distal tubule has relatively impermeable tight junctions compared with more leaky epithelia.
- Relatively permeable tight junctions allow more solute movement between cells.
- The renal proximal tubule and gallbladder have relatively permeable tight junctions.
- A renal tubule is a small kidney tube that helps process fluid into urine, and proximal and distal name different tubule regions.
- Gap junctions are intercellular connections that create direct communication pathways between neighboring cells.
- Myocardium is heart muscle, and gap junctions in myocardium allow electrical current to pass between cardiac muscle cells.
- Electrical coupling allows myocardial cells to coordinate contraction because depolarizing current can spread from one cell to the next.
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