text: import React from 'react';
  import { Link } from 'gatsby';
  
  import Layout from '../components/layout';
  import Seo from '../components/seo';
  import main from '../images/Gap Junction Overview wm.png';
  import Header from '../components/header';
  import Kordynet from '../components/kordynet';
  import GapLinks from '../components/links/gap';
  
  const IndexPage = ({ data }) => (
    <Layout name="gap">
      <Seo title="Gap Junction Controversy" />
  
      <div id="copy">
        <Header />
        <div className="pl-link">
          <Link to="/gap-junction-pl">po Polsku</Link>
        </div>
        <h2>Gap Junction Controversy</h2>
        <img src={main} alt="Gap Junction Illustration" width="206" />
        <h3>Read the articles:</h3>
        <a
          href="/pdfs/gapjunction/Complementary replication of Gap Junctions in sheep cardiac Purkinje strands; Evidence for noncomplementarity of particles and pits Les Kordylewski.pdf"
          target="_blank"
          rel="noreferrer"
        >
          Complementary replication of Gap Junctions in sheep cardiac Purkinje
          strands; Evidence for noncomplementarity of particles and pits
        </a>
        &nbsp;
        <small>Copyright &copy; 2022 Les Kordylewski</small>
        <br />
        <br />
        <a
          href="/pdfs/gapjunction/Gap Junction Ultrastructure Controversy Les Kordylewski.pdf"
          target="_blank"
          rel="noreferrer"
        >
          Gap Junction Ultrastructure Controversy Resolved in 3-D: PITS AND
          PARTICLES DO NOT MATCH.
        </a>
        &nbsp;
        <small>Copyright &copy; 2022 Les Kordylewski</small>
        <div>
          <h3>Explanation:</h3>
        </div>
        <p>
          The text of the attached article entitled:{' '}
          <b>
            <i>
              "Complementary replication of Gap Junctions in sheep cardiac
              Purkinje strands; Evidence for noncomplementarity of particles and
              pits”
            </i>
          </b>{' '}
          is the original manuscript describing the results of my observations of
          the three-dimensional structure of Gap Junctions (GJ) in the cell
          membranes of the myocytes of heart. Additionally, I am posting another
          never published before review article entitled:{' '}
          <b>
            <i>
              "Gap Junction ultrastructure controversy resolved in 3D. Pits and
              particles do not match."
            </i>
          </b>{' '}
          which explains in detail my methods of visualization details of the cell
          membrane ultrastructure in 3D.
        </p>
        <p>
          The presented observations of GJ details after application of the
          freeze-fracture (FF) technique, were a by-product of my research on the
          ultrastructure of myocyte cell membranes, carried out between 1982 and
          1995 in the Electron Microscopy Laboratory of the Department of Medicine
          of the University of Chicago. My results were the subject of a series of
          publications (<i>American Journal of Physiology</i>, 245 (6), H992-H997,
          1983; <i>Biophysical Journal</i>, 47, 2, 2, 506a, 1985;{' '}
          <i>American Journal of Physiology</i>, 248 (3, Pt. 2), H297-H304, 1985;{' '}
          <i>Developmental Biology</i>, 112 (2), 485-488, 1985;{' '}
          <i>Tissue and Cell</i>, 18 (5), 793-801, 1986;{' '}
          <i>Circulation Research</i>, 73 (1), 135-146, 1993;{' '}
          <i>Journal of Microscopy</i>, 173 (3), 173-81, 1994;{' '}
          <i>Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry</i>, 43 (5), 481-488,
          1995), which are widely cited.{' '}
        </p>
        <p>
          To better visualize particles in these membranes and to examine them
          quantitatively, I consistently used three-dimensional imaging (by taking
          hundreds of photographs using electron microscope equipped with a
          tilting table) and analyzing such stereopairs. I used the same method
          taking EM pictures of membrane areas with split GJ, while on the
          complementary replicas I found complementary Face E and P, previously
          adjacent to each other before splitting the same Gap Junction (GJ).
        </p>
        <p>
          This manuscript has never been published. My observations and
          conclusions (demonstrating the lack of complementarity of pits and
          particles in the complementary replicas of split cell membranes, carried
          out on the three-dimensional images (stereopairs) of the same areas of
          GJs in Face E and P in the replicas of the same GJ) were the subject of
          crushing criticism, as being inconsistent with the commonly accepted
          basic model of the structure of GJ. This traditional model, in which
          pits are supposed to be scars in Face E after particles visible in Face
          P were pulled out of them in the FF process, is still presented in this
          way in every textbook of Cell Biology.
        </p>
        <p>
          After reporting my results at the 1984 Cell Biology Conference in
          Baltimore (
          <i>
            Are gap junctional pits and particles complementary structures?{' '}
            <b>Biophysical Journal</b>
          </i>
          , 47, 2, 2, 506a, 1985), I was discouraged to publish the full text of
          this controversial article, because I was at risk of losing funding for
          my research. Therefore, I did not send this manuscript for publication,
          although I was (and I still am) convinced that my conclusions refuting
          the old model are correct.
        </p>
        <p>
          In the examination of GJs no one has ever used my original comparative
          method of matching Face E and P pages by superimposing{' '}
          <b>
            <span className="underline">three-dimensional</span> (3D)
          </b>{' '}
          images of the replicas in the complementary P and E areas of the cell
          membrane interior of the same GJ. Usually, only the comparison of "flat"
          individual photos of face E and P was done, usually in different areas –
          not of the same GJ. Therefore, traditional conclusions were drawn that
          particles must always be complementary to pits in GJ. On the contrary,
          my observations of "matching" the details of complementary face E and P
          structures in replicas of membranes coming from the same areas of the
          same GJ led to the only possible interpretation that when
          three-dimensional images of Face E and P of the same Gap Junction were
          superimposed, the pits "fit" into the space between the connexons. This
          obviously contradicted the commonly accepted view that the pits are
          complementary to particles in the connexon, as if the pits were scars in
          Face E from P Face particles drawn from them. According to my
          observations, between the pits there are halves of connexons broken in
          the middle by FF. In the replicas they appear as complementary to the
          sister set of halves visible as particles on the Face P side.
        </p>
        <p>
          At the time when I made this observation, I used numerous simple devices
          and techniques available to me for the evaluation of high-resolution
          black and white microphotographs – electron micrographs (see subsection{' '}
          <i>Material and Methods</i>). To confirm the controversial
          complementarity of the structures that I demonstrated, my excellent
          quality photographs would deserve to be processed now with more advanced
          contemporary computer methods. Unfortunately, at present I am not able
          to perform this task myself.
        </p>
        <p>
          However, I consider this topic somewhat important, because it draws
          attention to the possible role of the space between the connexons, where
          in my opinion the pits are located. Despite the extensive literature on
          the connexons themselves, the importance of the space between them is
          underestimated. After all, just there the unknown forces that hold the
          connections together are located. Nevertheless, the conclusions about
          the role and structure of the connexons are usually drawn through the
          use of theoretical models, and not as a result of directly revealing
          their structure. On the other hand, the factors which keep individual
          connectors together in a common assembly, are probably located in the
          spaces between the connections (appearing as pits), and remain
          underestimated.
        </p>
        <div className="copyright">
          Previously Unpublished - Copyright &copy; February, 2022 Les
          Kordylewski. <br className="br" />
          All Rights Reserved.
        </div>
        <h3>Additional Links:</h3>
        <GapLinks />
        <Kordynet />
      </div>
    </Layout>
  );
  
  export default IndexPage;
  