Stephen Rothery

TL;DR: Major tasks ahead focus on the Purkinje/working ventricular myocyte interface and its role in normal and abnormal impulse propagation, connexin-interacting proteins and their regulatory functions, and on defining the precise functional properties conferred by the distinctive con Nexin co-expression patterns of different myocyte types in health and disease.

TL;DR: A widespread, generalized derangement of gap junction organization does not appear to underlie functional impairment in the ischemic heart, and a disorderly arrangement typifies gap junctions in myocytes of the infarct border zone, and this may contribute to alterations in conduction that are capable of precipitating reentry arrhythmias.

TL;DR: BrS is associated with epicardial surface and interstitial fibrosis and reduced gap junction expression in the RVOT, and their ablation abolishes the BrS phenotype and life-threatening arrhythmias.

TL;DR: It is concluded that this progressive change in the organization and pattern of association between gap junctions and cell adhesion junctions is likely to be an important factor in maturation of electromechanical function within the mammalian heart.

TL;DR: Changes in the spatiotemporal patterns of the intercellular junctions responsible for electrical and mechanical coupling are closely coordinated in postnatal human ventricular myocardium and continue to about 6 years of age, where there is a close and increasing association between the gap junctions and fascia adherens junctions.