Abstract
Presentation Description :
Gap junctions composed of connexin43 (Cx43) are present in most of the epithelial tissues of the eye including the lens, cornea, ciliary body and retina. During epithelial wound repair, gap junctions composed of Cx43 are highly regulated. They are necessary to initiate early steps in wound healing but then later are downregulated to allow proper proliferation and migration. Thus, a variety of strategies have been devised to speed wound healing via changing gap junctional communication and varying the levels/function of Cx43. This presentation will show how Cx43 is regulated during wounding. Specifically it will show how sequential phosphorylation at specific serines and tyrosines in the C-terminal tail via Akt, PKC, MAPK and Src occurs during response to epithelial wounding, and the different effects of the activation of these kinases on Cx43 and gap junctional communication and turnover.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.