Figure 4From: Contribution of gap junctional communication between tumor cells and astroglia to the invasion of the brain parenchyma by human glioblastomasConnexin 43 expression in glioma cells. A, Western blot analysis of Cx43 expression in cell lines GL15 (lanes 1 and 2) and 8-MG (lanes 4 and 5), and in primary mouse astrocytes (lane 3). Three isoforms of Cx43 were detected in normal astrocytes, that corresponded to two phosphorylated (Cx43-P1 and Cx43-P2) and one non-phosphorylated (Cx43-NP) isoforms. GL15 cells exhibited higher level of Cx43 protein than 8 MG cells. B, Western blot analysis of Cx43 expression in seven human gliomas maintained in nude mice (T1 to T8). All tumors expressed one phosphorylated isoform. In addition, the non-phosphorylated isoform was detected in 4 tumor samples (T1, T2, T4 and T7). Tubulin was used as internal control The gels shown, are representative of a minimum of three independent experiments.Back to article page