Connexin40 and connexin43 determine gating properties of atrial gap junction channels

While ventricular gap junctions contain only Cx43, atrial gap junctions contain both Cx40 and Cx43; yet the functional consequences of this co-expression remain poorly understood. We quantitated the expression of Cx40 and Cx43 and their contributions to atrial gap junctional conductance (g_j). Neonatal murine atrial myocytes showed similar abundances of Cx40 and Cx43 proteins, while ventricular myocytes contained at least 20 times more Cx43 than Cx40. Since Cx40 gap junction channels are blocked by 2 mM spermine while Cx43 channels are unaffected, we used spermine block as a functional dual whole cell patch clamp assay to determine Cx40 contributions to cardiac g_j. Slightly more than half of atrial g_j and ≤ 20% of ventricular g_j were inhibited. In myocytes from Cx40 null mice, the inhibition of ventricular g_j was completely abolished, and the block of atrial g_j was reduced to < 20%. Compared to ventricular gap junctions, the transjunctional voltage (V_j)-dependent inactivation of atrial g_j was reduced and kinetically slowed, while the V_j-dependence of fast and slow inactivation was unchanged. We conclude that Cx40 and Cx43 are equally abundant in atrium and make similar contributions to atrial g_j. Co-expression of Cx40 accounts for most, but not all, of the differences in the V_j-dependent gating properties between atrium and ventricle that may play a role in the genesis of slow myocardial conduction and arrhythmias.