Fine Intercellular Connections in Development: TNTs, Cytonemes, or Intercellular Bridges?

Overview

Journal Cell Stress

Date 2020 Feb 12

PMID 32043076

Citations 42

Authors

Olga Korenkova

Anna Pepe

Chiara Zurzolo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Intercellular communication is a fundamental property of multicellular organisms, necessary for their adequate responses to changing environment. Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) represent a novel means of intercellular communication being a long cell-to-cell conduit. TNTs are actively formed under a broad range of stresses and are also proposed to exist under physiological conditions. Development is a physiological condition of particular interest, as it requires fine coordination. Here we discuss whether protrusions shown to exist during embryonic development of different species could be TNTs or if they represent other types of cell structure, like cytonemes or intercellular bridges, that are suggested to play an important role in development.

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