MEASUREMENT OF GAP JUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION BY FLUORESCENCE-ACTIVATEDCELL SORTING

Cell-to-cell communication via gap junctions has played a fundamental role in the orderly development of multicellular organisms. Current me thods for measuring this function apply mostly to homotypic cell popul ations. The newly introduced Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS ) method, albeit with some limitations, is simpler reliable, and quant itative in measuring the dye transfer via gap junctions in both homoty pic and heterotypic cell populations. In the homotypic setting, the re sult in dye transfer from the FACS method is comparable to the scrape- loading and microinjection methods. Using this FACS method, we observe d a decline of cell-to-cell communication in transformed and cancer ce lls. We also observed a differential degree of communication between t wo heterotypic cell populations depending on the direction of dye tran sfer.