GENERAL HISTOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Gap junctions within the intercalated disks allow impulses to spread from one cardiac muscle cell to another, allowing sodium, potassium, and calcium ions to flow between adjacent cells, propagating the action potential, and ensuring coordinated contractions.

Detailed explanation-2: -Gap junctions are membrane channels that mediate the cell-to-cell movement of ions and small metabolites. In the heart, gap junctions play an important role in impulse conduction. Studies over the last decade have revealed that gap junctions are encoded by a multigene family known as the connexins.

Detailed explanation-3: -In the heart, gap junctions are the basic unit at the cellular level that host intercellular low-resistance channels for the diffusion of ions and small regulatory molecules.

Detailed explanation-4: -The calcium that enters the heart cell through the calcium ion channel activates the ryanodine receptor to release enough calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum to initiate heart muscle contraction. This is done by binding to another structure, named troponin, inside the heart muscle cell.

Detailed explanation-5: -Gap junctions allow the action potential to be transferred from one cell to the next (they are said to electrically couple neighbouring cardiac cells). They are made from the connexin family of proteins, that form a pore through which ions (including Na+, Ca2+ and K+) can pass.