Table 2.

Cell-to-cell coupling of parental and transfected bEnd.3 cells 24 h after wounding, as determined by microinjection of Lucifer Yellow

Clone	Location	Cell-to-cell coupling	SEM	Number of injections
bEnd.3	W	12.3a	0.5	10
bEnd.3	Ow	5	0.3	10
B5	W	3.1b	0.3	10
B5	Ow	1.7	0.3	10
D2	W	3.5b	0.3	10
D2	Ow	1.6	0.2	10

The number of cells labeled with Lucifer Yellow after a 3-min microinjection was counted 24 h after wounding in both wound (W) and ‘outside of the wound’ (Ow) regions of the parenteral bEnd.3 cell line, a clone of bEnd.3 cells transfected with 3243H7 cDNA (B5), or Cx43βGal cDNA (D2). Parental bEnd.3 cells of the confluent outside of the wound regions were coupled on average to ∼5 neighboring cells. This extent of coupling was significantly ( 

^a p < 0.01) increased to ∼12–13 neighboring cells at the wound. Both bEnd.3/3243H7 and bEnd.3/Cx43βGal cells showed reduced coupling, being usually coupled to only one neighboring cell in the outside the wound region. The extent of Lucifer Yellow transfer in the wound region marginally increased between cells expressing the dominant negative connexins and, in all cases, was significantly ( 

^b p < 0.01) decreased compared with parental cells.