Gap junction protein connexin-43 and its distribution in different tissues

Connexins is the family of proteins which in vertebrates form gap junctions – intercellular contacts allowing the passage of small molecules between cells. Connexin-43 is the most abundant member of connexin family in human. Its cellular functions are diverse, and its localization in the human body is the most wide across all connexins. Most intensive research is devoted to the investigation of соnnexin-43 role in intercellular communication and its functional features in the vital organs — heart and brain. Due to high abundance in different tissues, at the moment there is the large amount of various experimental data, which are hard to assemble into global picture. This work aims to present generalized information about the distribution and functions of соnnexin-43 in various tissues and further prospects for studying this protein using the currently available literature data.