Primary rat hepatocytes were isolated and cultivated as specified in “Materials and Methods”. 24 hours after cell seeding, cultured hepatocytes were exposed during 24 hours to 20 µM TAT-Gap24, 20 µM TAT-Gap19, 50 µM carbenoxolone (CBX) or solvent control. Subsequently, cells were subjected to FRAP analysis. After loading with 10 µM calcein-acetoxymethyl ester, fluorescence within a single cell was photobleached by 1 second spot exposure to 488 nm Argon laser. The dye influx from neighboring cells was recorded over the next 6 minutes. Fluorescence in the bleached cell was expressed as the percentage recovery relative to the prebleach level. At least 5 wells per cell culture dish were examined in each experiment, with a total of 5 experiments (i.e. hepatocytes isolated from 5 different rats). Data are expressed as means ± SEM, with *p < 0.05 compared to recovery in the solvent control.