What are Neuronal gap junctions

These channels are composed of connexin proteins that oligomerize into hexamers to form connexons or hemichannels.Gap junctions are found in between the vast majority of cells within the body because they are found between all cells that are directly.Neuronal gap junction coupling is regulated by glutamate and plays critical role in cell death during neuronal injury.Originally, it was believed that gap junctions represent simple passageways for electrical and biochemical coordination early in development.Neuronal gap junctions were identified as a type of direct intracellular communication for electrical synapses during the 1970s and had once been regarded as the primary mechanism of neural transmission until the emergence of studies of chemical neurotransmission.

The gap junctions are found at the endings of fine processes — called telodendria — that emerge from the base of cone pedicles and contact adjacent cones.Electrical coupling through gap junctions is an important form of neuronal communication, but methods to interrogate electrical coupling are limited.Making and breaking connections during development and injury in the mammalian central nervous system (cns), coupling of neurons by gap junctions (i.e., electrical synapses) and the expression of the neuronal gap junction protein, connexin 36 (cx36), transiently increase during early postnatal development.They also suggest that causal link among group ii mglur function, neuronal gap junction coupling, and neuronal death has a universal character and operates in different types of neuronal injuries.The anatomical circuit diagram of c.