scholarly journals Modeling Macroscopic Currents of Ion Channels

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Wu

Ion-channel functions are often studied by the current-voltage relation, which is commonly fitted by the Boltzmann equation, a powerful model widely used nowadays. However, the Boltzmann model is restricted to a two-state ion-permeation process. Here we present an improved model that comprises a flexible number of states and incorporates both the single-channel conductance and the open-channel probability. Employing the channel properties derived from the single-channel recording experiments, the proposed model is able to describe various current-voltage relations, especially the reversal ion-permeation curves showing the inward- and outward-rectifications. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model using the published patch-clamp data of BK and MthK potassium channels, and discuss the similarity of the two channels based on the model studies.

1999 ◽  
Vol 277 (1) ◽  
pp. H199-H210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Kiehn ◽  
Antonio E. Lacerda ◽  
Arthur M. Brown

The rapid, repolarizing K+ current in cardiomyocytes ( I Kr) has unique inwardly rectifying properties that contribute importantly to the downstroke of the cardiac action potential. The human ether-à-go-go-related gene ( HERG) expresses a macroscopic current virtually identical to I Kr, but a description of the single-channel properties that cause rectification is lacking. For this reason we measured single-channel and macropatch currents heterologously expressed by HERG in Xenopus oocytes. Our experiments had two main findings. First, the single-channel current-voltage relation showed inward rectification, and conductance was 9.7 pS at −100 mV and 3.9 pS at 100 mV when measured in symmetrical 100 mM K+ solutions. Second, single channels frequently showed no openings during depolarization but nevertheless revealed bursts of openings during repolarization. This type of gating may explain the inward rectification of HERG currents. To test this hypothesis, we used a three-closed state kinetics model and obtained rate constants from fits to macropatch data. Results from the model are consistent with rapid inactivation from closed states as a significant source of HERG rectification.


1992 ◽  
Vol 100 (5) ◽  
pp. 783-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
L W Haynes

Inside-out patches were excised from catfish rod or cone outer segments. Single channel and macroscopic currents were recorded from GMP-gated channels activated by 1 mM cGMP in low divalent buffered saline. Currents were blocked by the application of micromolar concentrations of l-cis-diltiazem to the cytoplasmic side of the patch. The concentration dependence of block indicated that a single molecule was sufficient to block a channel and that all channels were susceptible to block. The dissociation constant for the rod channel was an order of magnitude smaller than for the cone channel, but the voltage dependence of block was nearly identical. The macroscopic current-voltage relation in the presence of blocker was inwardly rectifying and superficially resembled voltage-dependent block by an impermeant blocker occluding the ion-conducting pore of the channel. Block by diltiazem acting from the extracellular side of the channel was investigated by including 5 microM diltiazem in the recording pipette solution. The macroscopic current-voltage relation again showed inward rectification, inconsistent with the idea that diltiazem acts by occluding the pore at the external side. The kinetics of block by diltiazem applied to the intra- and extracellular side were measured in cone patches containing only a single channel. The unbinding rates were similar in both cases, suggesting a single binding site. Differences in the binding rate were consistent with greater accessibility to the binding site from the cytoplasmic side. Block from the cytoplasmic side was independent of pH, suggesting that the state of ionization of diltiazem was not related to its ability to block the channel in a voltage-dependent fashion. These observations are inconsistent with a pore-occluding blocker, but could be explained if the hydrophobic portion of diltiazem partitioned into the hydrophobic core of the channel protein, perhaps altering the gating of the channel.


1989 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Parent ◽  
R Coronado

Potassium channels inhibited by adenosine-5'-trisphosphate, K(ATP), found in the transverse tubular membrane of rabbit skeletal muscle were studied using the planar bilayer recording technique. In addition to the single-channel properties of K(ATP) we report its regulation of Mg2+ and by the guanosine-5'-trisphosphate analogue, GTP-y(gamma)-S. The K(ATP) channel (a) has a conductance of 67 pS in 250 mM internal, 50 mM external KCl, and rectifies weakly at holding potentials more positive than 50 mV, (b) is not activated by internal Ca2+ or membrane depolarization, (c) has a permeability ratio PK/PNa greater than 50, and (d) is inhibited by millimolar internal ATP. Activity of K(ATP), measured as open channel probability as a function of time, was unstable at all holding potentials and decreases continuously within a few minutes after a recording is initiated. After a decrease in activity, GTP-y-S (100 microM) added to the internal side reactivated K(ATP) channels but only transiently. In the presence of internal 1 mM Mg2+, GTP-y-S produced a sustained reactivation lasting 20-45 min. Incubation of purified t-tubule vesicles with AlF4 increased the activity of K(ATP) channels, mimicking the effect of GTP-y-S. The effect of AlF4 and the requirement of GTP-y-S plus Mg2+ for sustained channel activation suggests that a nucleotide-binding G protein regulates ATP-sensitive K channels in the t-tuble membrane of rabbit skeletal muscle.


eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R Strikwerda ◽  
Steven M Sine

Whether ion channel gating is independent of ion permeation has been an enduring, unresolved question. Here, applying single channel recording to the archetypal muscle nicotinic receptor, we unmask coupling between channel gating and ion permeation by structural perturbation of a conserved intramembrane salt bridge. A charge-neutralizing mutation suppresses channel gating, reduces unitary current amplitude, and increases fluctuations of the open channel current. Power spectra of the current fluctuations exhibit low- and high-frequency Lorentzian components, which increase in charge-neutralized mutant receptors. After aligning channel openings and closings at the time of transition, the average unitary current exhibits asymmetric relaxations just after channel opening and before channel closing. A theory in which structural motions contribute jointly to channel gating and ion conduction describes both the power spectrum and the current relaxations. Coupling manifests as a transient increase in the open channel current upon channel opening and a decrease upon channel closing.


1998 ◽  
Vol 275 (1) ◽  
pp. C179-C188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don-On Daniel Mak ◽  
J. Kevin Foskett

The effects of Mg2+ and Ba2+ on single-channel properties of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (IP3R) were studied by patch clamp of isolated nuclei from Xenopusoocytes. In 140 mM K+ the IP3R channel kinetics and presence of conductance substates were similar over a range (0–9.5 mM) of free Mg2+. In 0 mM Mg2+ the channel current-voltage ( I-V) relation was linear with conductance of ∼320 pS. Conductance varied slowly and continuously over a wide range (SD ≈ 60 pS) and sometimes fluctuated during single openings. The presence of Mg2+ on either or both sides of the channel reduced the current (blocking constant ∼0.6 mM in symmetrical Mg2+), as well as the range of conductances observed, and made the I-V relation nonlinear (slope conductance ∼120 pS near 0 mV and ∼360 pS at ±70 mV in symmetrical 2.5 mM Mg2+). Ba2+ exhibited similar effects on channel conductance. Mg2+ and Ba2+ permeated the channel with a ratio of permeability of Ba2+ to Mg2+ to K+ of 3.5:2.6:1. These results indicate that divalent cations induce nonlinearity in the I-V relation and reduce current by a mechanism involving permeation block of the IP3R due to strong binding to site(s) in the conduction pathway. Furthermore, stabilization of conductance by divalent cations reveals a novel interaction between the cations and the IP3R.


1992 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 1901-1905 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rosenmund ◽  
P. Legendre ◽  
G. L. Westbrook

1. Conflicting evidence exists concerning the expression and properties of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors on cerebellar Purkinje cells during development. We used whole-cell and single-channel recording to examine NMDA receptors on acutely dissociated Purkinje cells from newborn rats (postnatal day 0-4). 2. NMDA channels were present on > 80% of identified Purkinje cells and had pharmacological and single-channel properties that were indistinguishable from NMDA receptors on other neurons. In particular, responses were glycine-dependent and Mg2+ produced flickery open-channel block. 3. Our results demonstrate the transient expression of NMDA receptor/channels on Purkinje cells early in development. As NMDA receptors have been implicated in developmental plasticity in other regions of the CNS, a similar role is feasible during climbing fiber innervation of Purkinje cells.


Ion channels in both the tonoplast and the plasma membrane of Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been characterized at the single channel level by patch-clamp techniques. The predominant tonoplast channel is cation selective, has an open-channel conductance of 120 pS in 100 mM KCl, and conducts Na + or K + equally well, and Ca 2+ to a lesser extent. Its open probability (P„) is voltage-dependent, peaking at about — 80 mV (cytoplasm negative), and falling to near zero at + 8 0 mV. Elevated cytoplasmic Ca 2+ , alkaline cytoplasmic pH, and reducing agents activate the channel. The predominant plasma membrane channel is highly selective for K + over anions and other cations, and shows strong outward rectification of the time-averaged current-voltage curves in cell-attached experiments. In isolated inside-out patches with micromolar cytoplasmic Ca 2+ , this channel is activated by positive going membrane voltages: mean P o is zero at negative membrane voltages and near unity at 100 mV. At moderate positive membrane voltages (20-40 mV), elevating cytoplasmic Ca 2+ activates the channel to open in bursts of several hundred milliseconds duration. At higher positive membrane voltages, however, elevating cytoplasmic Ca 2+ blocks the channel in a voltage-dependent fashion for periods of 2-3 ms. The frequency of these blocking events depends on cytoplasmic Ca 2+ and membrane voltage according to second-order kinetics. Alternative cations, such as Mg 2+ of Na + , block the yeast plasma-membrane K + channel in a similar but less pronounced manner.


2013 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indra Schroeder ◽  
Gerhard Thiel ◽  
Ulf-Peter Hansen

Single-channel current–voltage (IV) curves of human large-conductance, voltage- and Ca2+-activated K+ (BK) channels are quite linear in 150 mM KCl. In the presence of Ca2+ and/or Mg2+, they show a negative slope conductance at high positive potentials. This is generally explained by a Ca2+/Mg2+ block as by Geng et al. (2013. J. Gen. Physiol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1085/jgp.201210955) in this issue. Here, we basically support this finding but add a refinement: the analysis of the open-channel noise by means of β distributions reveals what would be found if measurements were done with an amplifier of sufficient temporal resolution (10 MHz), namely that the block by 2.5 mM Ca2+ and 2.5 mM Mg2+ per se would only cause a saturating curve up to +160 mV. Further bending down requires the involvement of a second process related to flickering in the microsecond range. This flickering is hardly affected by the presence or absence of Ca2+/Mg2+. In contrast to the experiments reported here, previous experiments in BK channels (Schroeder and Hansen. 2007. J. Gen. Physiol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1085/jgp.200709802) showed saturating IV curves already in the absence of Ca2+/Mg2+. The reason for this discrepancy could not be identified so far. However, the flickering component was very similar in the old and new experiments, regardless of the occurrence of noncanonical IV curves.


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