Long-distance communication between laryngeal carcinoma cells.

ABSTRACT: Tunneling nanotubes and epithelial bridges are recently discovered new forms of intercellular communication between remote cells allowing their electrical synchronization, transfer of second messengers and even membrane vesicles and organelles. In the present study, we demonstrate for the first time in primary cell cultures prepared from human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) samples that these cells communicate with each other over long distances (up to 1 mm) through membranous tunneling tubes (TTs), which can be open-ended or contain functional gap junctions formed of connexin 43. We found two types of TTs, containing F-actin alone or F-actin and α-tubulin. In the LSCC cell culture, we identified 5 modes of TT formation and performed quantitative assessment of their electrical pr

SUBMITTER: Antanaviciute I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4063716 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature