Table 1.

Summary of published works on the effect of parasite infections on the gap junction activity or connexin expression.

Infectious agent	Strain	Cell type	Effects	Experimental techniques	Ref.
Trypanosome cruzi	Tulahuen	Primary culture of rat neonatal cardiomyocytes	↓ dye coupling	Junctional conductance and dye transfer of Lucifer yellow	[50]
			↓ Cx43 expression at junctional membrane regions	Immunofluorescence
Trypanosome cruzi	Tulahuen	Primary culture of rat neonatal astrocytes	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow	[49]
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43)
		Primary culture of rat leptomeningeal cells	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 and Cx26 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43, Cx26)
	Brazil	Murine infection	↓ Cx43 expression at 4 weeks p.i.	Immunofluorescence
Trypanosome cruzi	Y	Primary culture of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes	↑ Cx43 expression and phosphorylation at 1 hour p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)	[50]
			↓ Cx43 expression at 48 and 72 hours p.i.	Immunostaining (Cx43)
		Murine infection	↓ Cx43 in atria and ventricle at 11 days p.i.	Confocal microscopy (Cx43)
			↓ Cx43 plaque distribution
Trypanosome cruzi	Colombian	C57BL/6 mice	↓ Cx43 expression at 28 and 32 days p.i.	Immunohistochemistry (Cx43)	[54]
		B6.129-Tnfraf1a (p55/60)-deficient mice	= Cx43 expression at 28 and 32 days p.i.
Trypanosome cruzi	Colombian	C3H/He (H-2K) mice	↓ Cx43 expression at 150 and 180 days p.i.	Immunohistochemistry (Cx43)	[51]
		Met-RANTES-treated C3H/He (H-2K) mice	= Cx43 expression at 150 and 180 days p.i.
Trypanosome cruzi	Y	Primary culture of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes	↓ Cx43 expression at 48 hours p.i.	Immunohistochemistry (Cx43)	[53]
		Left ventricle fragments from the heart of CCC patients	↓ Cx43 plaque number
			↓ Cx43 plaque size
Trypanosome cruzi	Colombian	Primary culture of mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes	↓ Cx43 gene	Microarray assay	[61]
			↑ Cx37 gene
			= Cx40 and Cx45 gene
Toxoplasma gondii	ME49	Primary culture of rat neonatal astrocytes	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow	[49]
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43)
		Primary culture of rat leptomeningeal cells	↓ dye coupling	Dye transfer of Lucifer yellow
			= Cx43 expression at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43)
			= Cx43 phosphorylation state at 72 hours p.i.	Western blot (Cx43) and electrophoretic mobility
			↓ Cx43 and Cx26 immunoreactivity	Immunostaining (Cx43, Cx26)
		Murine infection	↓ Cx43 expression at 12 weeks p.i.	Immunofluorescence