Cardiac transient outward potassium current: a pulse chemistry model of frequency-dependent properties

1996 ◽  
Vol 270 (1) ◽  
pp. H386-H397
Author(s):  
L. Liu ◽  
V. I. Krinsky ◽  
A. O. Grant ◽  
C. F. Starmer

Recent voltage-clamp studies of isolated myocytes have demonstrated widespread occurrence of a transient outward current (I(to)) carried by potassium ions. In the canine ventricle, this current is well developed in epicardial cells but not in endocardial cells. The resultant spatial dispersion of refractoriness is potentially proarrhythmic and may be amplified by channel blockade. The inactivation and recovery time constants of this channel are in excess of several hundred milliseconds, and consequently channel availability is frequency dependent at physiological stimulation rates. When the time constants associated with transitions between different channel conformations are rapid relative to drug binding kinetics, the interactions between drugs and an ion channel can be approximated by a sequence of first-order reactions, in which binding occurs in pulses in response to pulse train stimulation (pulse chemistry). When channel conformation transition time constants do not meet this constraint, analytical characterizations of the drug-channel interaction must then be modified to reflect the channel time-dependent properties. Here we report that the rate and steady-state amount of frequency-dependent inactivation of I(to) are consistent with a generalization of the channel blockade model: channel availability is reduced in a pulsatile exponential pattern as the stimulation frequency is increased, and the rate of reduction is a linear function of the pulse train depolarizing and recovery intervals. I(to) was reduced in the presence of quinidine. After accounting for the use-dependent availability of I(to) channels, we found little evidence of an additional use-dependent component of block after exposure to quinidine, suggesting that quinidine reacts with both open and closed I(to) channels as though the binding site is continuously accessible. The model provides a useful tool for assessing drug-channel interactions when the reaction cannot be continuously monitored.

2000 ◽  
Vol 279 (1) ◽  
pp. H130-H138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gui-Rong Li ◽  
Baofeng Yang ◽  
Haiying Sun ◽  
Clive M. Baumgarten

A novel transient outward K+current that exhibits inward-going rectification ( I to.ir) was identified in guinea pig atrial and ventricular myocytes. I to.ir was insensitive to 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) but was blocked by 200 μmol/l Ba2+or removal of external K+. The zero current potential shifted 51–53 mV/decade change in external K+. I to.ir density was twofold greater in ventricular than in atrial myocytes, and biexponential inactivation occurs in both types of myocytes. At −20 mV, the fast inactivation time constants were 7.7 ± 1.8 and 6.1 ± 1.2 ms and the slow inactivation time constants were 85.1 ± 14.8 and 77.3 ± 10.4 ms in ventricular and atrial cells, respectively. The midpoints for steady-state inactivation were −36.4 ± 0.3 and −51.6 ± 0.4 mV, and recovery from inactivation was rapid near the resting potential (time constants = 7.9 ± 1.9 and 8.8 ± 2.1 ms, respectively). I to.ir was detected in Na+-containing and Na+-free solutions and was not blocked by 20 nmol/l saxitoxin. Action potential clamp revealed that I to.ir contributed an outward current that activated rapidly on depolarization and inactivated by early phase 2 in both tissues. Although it is well known that 4-AP-sensitive transient outward current is absent in guinea pig, this Ba2+-sensitive and 4-AP-insensitive K+ current has been overlooked.


1994 ◽  
Vol 266 (5) ◽  
pp. H2007-H2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. I. Zilberter ◽  
C. F. Starmer ◽  
A. O. Grant

In voltage-clamp studies of atrial myocytes exposed to disopyramide or quinidine, pulse-train stimulation revealed use-dependent block that increased with increased pulse amplitude. Use-dependent block also became negligible at hyperpolarized holding potentials (< -150 mV), consistent with either rapid unbinding at the holding potential or trapping of the drug in a drug-complexed rest conformation followed by rapid unbinding during the next channel opening event. To explore the unbinding properties of hypothetically different rest-blocked conformations, we exposed cells to a postdepolarization "conditioning" potential after channels had become fully inactivated so as to vary the transition to different hypothetical rest-blocked channels. Pulse-train stimulation from -130 to -30 mV generated only a small amount of use-dependent block. Inserting a 120-ms subthreshold (e.g., -100 mV) postdepolarization conditioning potential before return to -130 mV increased use-dependent block. The fraction of steady-state block exhibited a bell-shaped dependence on the conditioning potential. These results are consistent with the existence of a mixture of rest-blocked channel conformations, each having direct access to the blocked-inactivated state. These intermediate rest conformations display radically different drug unbinding rates.


2010 ◽  
Vol 298 (3) ◽  
pp. G456-G466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean P. Parsons ◽  
Jan D. Huizinga

Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) are the pacemakers of the gut, initiating slow-wave activity. Several ion channels have been identified that contribute to the depolarization phase of the slow wave. Our aim was to contribute to knowledge about the identity and role of ICC potassium channels in pacemaking. Here we describe a transient outward potassium current in cell-attached patches of ICC. This current was activated almost instantaneously at potentials positive of the resting membrane potential and inactivated as a single exponential or biexponential with time constants that varied widely from patch to patch. Averaged traces gave a biexponential inactivation with time constants of ∼40 and ∼500 ms, with no clear voltage dependence. Analysis of single-channel openings and closings indicated a channel conductance of 5 pS and permeability sequence of K+ (111) > Na+ (1) > N-methyl-d-glucamine+ (0.11). The current was completely blocked by 20 μM clotrimazole but was unaffected by 20 μM ketoconazole, 10 μM E4031, or 20 μM clofilium; 5 mM 4-aminopyridine slowed the activation of the current. The transient outward current may be important in moderating the upstroke of the pacemaker potential.


Circulation ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 92 (10) ◽  
pp. 3061-3069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Yamashita ◽  
Toshiaki Nakajima ◽  
Hisanori Hazama ◽  
Eiji Hamada ◽  
Yuji Murakawa ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 113 (11) ◽  
pp. 1772-1783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid M. Bonilla ◽  
Andriy E. Belevych ◽  
Arun Sridhar ◽  
Yoshinori Nishijima ◽  
Hsiang-Ting Ho ◽  
...  

The risk of sudden cardiac death is increased following myocardial infarction. Exercise training reduces arrhythmia susceptibility, but the mechanism is unknown. We used a canine model of sudden cardiac death (healed infarction, with ventricular tachyarrhythmias induced by an exercise plus ischemia test, VF+); we previously reported that endurance exercise training was antiarrhythmic in this model (Billman GE. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 297: H1171–H1193, 2009). A total of 41 VF+ animals were studied, after random assignment to 10 wk of endurance exercise training (EET; n = 21) or a matched sedentary period ( n = 20). Following (>1 wk) the final attempted arrhythmia induction, isolated myocytes were used to test the hypotheses that the endurance exercise-induced antiarrhythmic effects resulted from normalization of cellular electrophysiology and/or normalization of calcium handling. EET prevented VF and shortened in vivo repolarization ( P < 0.05). EET normalized action potential duration and variability compared with the sedentary group. EET resulted in a further decrement in transient outward current compared with the sedentary VF+ group ( P < 0.05). Sedentary VF+ dogs had a significant reduction in repolarizing K+ current, which was restored by exercise training ( P < 0.05). Compared with controls, myocytes from the sedentary VF+ group displayed calcium alternans, increased calcium spark frequency, and increased phosphorylation of S2814 on ryanodine receptor 2. These abnormalities in intracellular calcium handling were attenuated by exercise training ( P < 0.05). Exercise training prevented ischemically induced VF, in association with a combination of beneficial effects on cellular electrophysiology and calcium handling.


1996 ◽  
Vol 271 (4) ◽  
pp. H1423-H1432
Author(s):  
M. Nagashima ◽  
Y. Hattori ◽  
Y. Akaishi ◽  
N. Tohse ◽  
I. Sakuma ◽  
...  

Stimulation of alpha 1-adrenoceptors produces a positive inotropic effect in rat and rabbit ventricular myocardium via different mechanisms, the prolongation of action potential duration (APD) exclusively in the former and an increase in myofibrillar Ca2+ sensitivity in large part in the latter. This study was designed to determine whether the two inotropic mechanisms are mediated by different alpha 1-adrenoceptor subtypes. In rat papillary muscles, the positive inotropic effect and APD prolongation induced by phenylephrine (in the presence of propranolol) were inhibited by WB-4101, but not affected by chlorethylclonidine (CEC). WB-4101, but not CEC, blocked the phenylephrine-induced inhibition of the transient outward current (Ito) in rat ventricular cells. On the other hand, WB-4101 and CEC each antagonized the positive inotropic effect of phenylephrine in rabbit papillary muscles. However, the phenylephrine-induced APD prolongation observed in rabbit papillary muscles was blocked only by WB-4101. These results indicate that the WB-4101 sensitive alpha 1-adrenoceptor subtype mediates the positive inotropism that is correlated with the APD prolongation resulting from Ito reduction, whereas the CEC-sensitive subtype mediates the positive inotropism that is probably associated with increased myofibrillar Ca2+ sensitivity. Radioligand binding studies with [3H] prazosin showed a similar ratio of alpha 1A-to alpha 1B-adrenoceptor subtypes in rat and rabbit ventricular myocardium, implying that the different degree of contribution of each action mechanism to the overall inotropic effect in the two species cannot be explained by distribution of the alpha 1-adrenoceptor subtypes.


2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 1814-1825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Luther ◽  
Katalin Cs. Halmos ◽  
Jeffrey G. Tasker

Type I putative magnocellular neurosecretory cells of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) express a prominent transient outward rectification generated by an A-type potassium current. Described here is a slow transient outward current that alters cell excitability and firing frequency in a subset of type I PVN neurons (38%). Unlike most of the type I neurons (62%), the transient outward current in these cells was composed of two kinetically separable current components, a fast activating, fast inactivating component, resembling an A-type potassium current, and a slowly activating [10–90% rise time: 20.4 ± 12.8 (SE) ms], slowly inactivating component (time constant of inactivation: τ = 239.0 ± 66.1 ms). The voltage dependence of activation and inactivation and the sensitivity to block by 4-aminopyridine (5 mM) and tetraethylammonium chloride (10 mM) of the fast and slow components were similar. Compared to the other type I neurons, the neurons that expressed the slow transient outward current were less excitable when hyperpolarized, requiring larger current injections to elicit an action potential (58.5 ± 13.2 vs. 15.4 ± 2.4 pA; 250-ms duration; P < 0.01), displaying a longer delay to the first spike (184.9 ± 15.7 vs. 89.7 ± 8.8 ms with 250- to 1,000-ms, 50-pA current pulses; P < 0.01), and firing at a lower frequency (18.7 ± 4.6 vs. 37.0 ± 5.5 Hz with 100-pA current injections; P < 0.05). These data suggest that a distinct subset of type I PVN neurons express a novel slow transient outward current that leads to a lower excitability. Based on double labeling following retrograde transport of systemically administered fluoro-gold and intracellular injection of biocytin, these cells are neurosecretory and are similar morphologically to magnocellular neurosecretory cells, although it remains to be determined whether they are magnocellular neurons.


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