Gap junction remodeling in the epicardial border zone of infarcted hearts is heterogeneous, and its effects on conduction velocity must be interpreted alongside other types of remodeling, such as sarcolemmal ion channels.
Gap junction conductance and distribution is heterogeneous in different regions of reentrant circuits. Lateralization of Cx43 gap junctions in CCP of reentrant circuits is associated with normal transverse conductance between cell pairs. In contrast, absence of lateralization in OP is associated with reduced transverse conductance. Despite normal anisotropic ratio, conduction velocity in CCP region remains slower than normal. This suggests that the effects of Cx43 remodeling in the infarcted heart should be interpreted in conjunction with other types of remodeling occurring in the EBZ (i.e. sarcolemmal ion channels).
Cabo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.