Sinusoidal voltage protocols for rapid characterisation of ion channel kinetics

Understanding the roles of ion currents is crucial to predict the action of pharmaceuticals and mutations in different scenarios, and thereby to guide clinical interventions in the heart, brain and other electrophysiological systems. Our ability to predict how ion currents contribute to cellular electrophysiology is in turn critically dependent on our characterisation of ion channel kinetics — the voltage-dependent rates of transition between open, closed and inactivated channel states. We present a new method for rapidly exploring and characterising ion channel kinetics, applying it to the hERG potassium channel as an example, with the aim of generating a quantitatively predictive representation of the ion current. We fit a mathematical model to currents evoked by a novel 8 second sinusoidal voltage clamp in CHO cells over-expressing hERG1a. The model is then used to predict over 5 minutes of recordings in the same cell in response to further protocols: a series of traditional square step voltage clamps, and also a novel voltage clamp comprised of a collection of physiologically-relevant action potentials. We demonstrate that we can make predictive cell-specific models that outperform the use of averaged data from a number of different cells, and thereby examine which changes in gating are responsible for cell-cell variability in current kinetics. Our technique allows rapid collection of consistent and high quality data, from single cells, and produces more predictive mathematical ion channel models than traditional approaches.Table of Contents CategoryTechniques for Physiology1Key PointsIon current kinetics are commonly represented by current-voltage relationships, time-constant voltage relationships, and subsequently mathematical models fitted to these. These experiments take substantial time which means they are rarely performed in the same cell.Rather than traditional square-wave voltage clamps, we fit a model to the current evoked by a novel sum-of-sinusoids voltage clamp that is only 8 seconds long.Short protocols that can be performed multiple times within a single cell will offer many new opportunities to measure how ion current kinetics are affected by changing conditions.The new model predicts the current under traditional square-wave protocols well, with better predictions of underlying currents than literature models. The current under a novel physiologically-relevant series of action potential clamps is predicted extremely well.The short sinusoidal protocols allow a model to be fully fitted to individual cells, allowing us to examine cell-cell variability in current kinetics for the first time.

An investigation of the coefficient of variation using voltage clamps techniques

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">In recent years, it has been argued and experimentally shown that ion channel noise in neurons can have profound effects on the neuron’s dynamical behavior. Most profoundly, ion channel noise was seen to be able to cause spontaneous firing and stochastic resonance. It has been recently found that a non-trivially persistent cross correlation takes place between the transmembrane voltage fluctuations and the component of open channel fluctuations attributed to gate multiplicity. This non-trivial phenomenon was found to play a major augmentative role for the elevation of excitability and spontaneous firing in the small size cell. In addition, the same phenomenon was found to significantly enhance the spike coherence. In this paper, statistics of the coefficient of variation, to be obtained from the colored stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley equations using voltage clamps techniqueswill be studied. The simulation result shows the coefficient of variation; enhance the agreement with the microscopeinthe case of the noisy currents.</span></p>

The Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 3 is required for active paracellular and transcellular Ca2+ transport across murine cecum

Intestinal calcium (Ca2+) absorption occurs via paracellular and transcellular pathways. Although the transcellular route has been extensively studied, mechanisms mediating paracellular absorption are largely unexplored. Unlike passive diffusion, secondarily active paracellular Ca2+ uptake occurs against an electrochemical gradient with water flux providing the driving force. Water movement is dictated by concentration differences that are largely determined by Na+ fluxes. Consequently, we hypothesized that Na+ absorption mediates Ca2+ flux. NHE3 is central to intestinal Na+ absorption. NHE3 knockout mice (NHE3−/−) display impaired intestinal Na+, water, and Ca2+ absorption. However, the mechanism mediating this latter abnormality is not clear. To investigate this, we used Ussing chambers to measure net Ca2+ absorption across different segments of wild-type mouse intestine. The cecum was the only segment with net Ca2+ absorption. Quantitative RT-PCR measurements revealed cecal expression of all genes implicated in intestinal Ca2+ absorption, including NHE3. We therefore employed this segment for further studies. Inhibition of NHE3 with 100 μM 5-( N-ethyl- N-isopropyl) amiloride decreased luminal-to-serosal and increased serosal-to-luminal Ca2+ flux. NHE3−/− mice had a >60% decrease in luminal-to-serosal Ca2+ flux. Ussing chambers experiments under altered voltage clamps (−25, 0, +25 mV) showed decreased transcellular and secondarily active paracellular Ca2+ absorption in NHE3−/− mice relative to wild-type animals. Consistent with this, cecal Trpv6 expression was diminished in NHE3−/− mice. Together these results implicate NHE3 in intestinal Ca2+ absorption and support the theory that this is, at least partially, due to the role of NHE3 in Na+ and water absorption.

Temperature dependence of human ether-à-go-go-related gene K+ currents

The function of voltage-gated human ether-à-go-gorelated gene ( hERG) K+ channels is critical for both normal cardiac repolarization and suppression of arrhythmias initiated by premature excitation. These important functions are facilitated by their unusual kinetics that combine relatively slow activation and deactivation with rapid and voltage-dependent inactivation and recovery from inactivation. The thermodynamics of these unusual features were examined by exploring the effect of temperature on the activation and inactivation processes of hERG channels expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Increased temperature shifted the voltage dependence of activation in the hyperpolarizing direction but that of inactivation in the depolarizing direction. This increases the relative occupancy of the open state and contributes to the marked temperature sensitivity of hERG current magnitude observed during action potential voltage clamps. The rates of activation and deactivation also increase with higher temperatures, but less markedly than do the rates of inactivation and recovery from inactivation. Our results also emphasize that one cannot extrapolate results obtained at room temperature to 37°C by using a single temperature scale factor.

Single-channel basis of slow inactivation of Na+ channels in rat skeletal muscle

This study examined the single-channel basis of slow inactivation of Na+ currents (INa) in rat fast-twitch skeletal muscle fibers. A loose patch voltage clamp monitored changes in the maximum inward INa as the holding potential of the membrane patch changed. On a neighboring region of extrajunctional membrane of the same fiber, a gigaohm seal patch voltage clamp recorded single-channel INa. The maximum number of simultaneously open Na+ channels among a group of current traces indicated the maximum number of excitable channels. The holding potentials of the two voltage clamps were the same. Slow inactivation did not affect the open time or conductance of single Na+ channels. The number of excitable Na+ channels reversibly decreased during development of slow inactivation of INa and increased during recovery from slow inactivation of INa. Different stimulation protocols examined whether Na+ channels had to be in the closed, open, or fast-inactivated states to enter the slow-inactivated state. Na+ channels appear to be able to enter the slow-inactivated state from the closed, open, or fast-inactivated state.

L-type calcium current in rod- and spindle-shaped myocytes isolated from rabbit atrioventricular node

The atrioventricular node (AVN) is vital to normal cardiac function. The present report describes the properties of L-type calcium current (ICa) in rod- and spindle-shaped myocytes isolated from the rabbit AVN. With depolarizing voltage clamps from a holding potential of -40 mV, a rapidly activating ICa was observed, which peaked at +10 mV in most cells and exhibited a “bell-shaped” current-voltage relation. ICa was abolished by nifedipine (2–20 microM) and cadmium (100–200 microM) and was greatly reduced by manganese (1 mM). At +10 mV, time to peak ICa was 3.3 +/- 0.15 (SE) ms (n = 12) and ICa current density was 9.3 +/- 1.2 pA/pF (n = 9). Steady-state activation and inactivation curves for ICa showed half-maximal activation at -3.6 mV [slope factor (k) = 6.6 mV] and half-maximal inactivation at -25.8 mV (k = 6.5 mV). The time course of decay of ICa during a depolarizing pulse was voltage dependent and biexponential. The time course of recovery of ICa from inactivation was also biexponential (with two time constants tau 1 = 194.7 and tau 2 = 907.4 ms). Under current clamp, spontaneous action potentials from AVN cells were blocked by nifedipine as well as by cadmium, suggesting that L-type ICa was largely responsible for the action potential upstroke.