REVIEW article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1650548
Research Progress of Connexin 43 in Cardiovascular Diseases
Provisionally accepted
- Shandong Provincial Hospital, Jinan, China
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Gap junctions (GJs) are critical structures for cardiac electrical signal conduction and synchronized contraction. Their fundamental components are transmembrane proteins from the connexin (Cx) family, which assemble into hexameric channels to form intercellular ion-permeable pathways, ensuring efficient electrical transmission and coordinated contraction between cardiac cells. Connexin 43 (Cx43), the most abundant connexin in the heart, serves as the primary constituent of ventricular gap junctions.Alterations in the structure, expression, distribution, and phosphorylation levels of Cx43 are closely associated with various cardiac pathologies, including arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, heart failure, ischemic cardiomyopathy, and diabetic cardiomyopathy. Thus, in-depth investigations into the biological characteristics of Cx43 are essential for elucidating the mechanisms underlying these diseases and developing potential therapeutic strategies. This review summarizes the role of Cx43 in cardiac diseases, explores its functional changes under electrophysiological and pathological conditions, and evaluates its impact on disease progression, providing theoretical insights for mechanistic studies and clinical interventions in cardiovascular diseases.
Keywords: Connexin 43, Gap junction proteins, Cell Communication, arrhythmia, review Connexin 43, review
Received: 20 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, li and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: qiao li, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Jinan, China
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