Abstract.
A member of the family of Ca++-independent large conductance K+ channels (termed BK channels) was identified in patch clamp experiments with cultured neonatal rat hippocampal neurons. Permeation was characterized (at 5 mmol/l external, 140 mmol/l internal K+; 135 mmol/l external Na+) by a conductance of 107 pS, a ratio PNa/PK∼ 0.01, and outward rectification near the reversal potential. Channel activity was not voltage-dependent, could not be reduced by internal TEA or by a shift of internal pH from 7.4 to 6.8, i.e., discriminating features within the Ca++-independent BK channel family. Cytosolic proteolysis abolished the functional state of hippocampal Ca++-independent BK channels, in contrast to the pronase resistance of hippocampal Ca++-activated BK channels which suggests structural dissimilarities between these related channels.
Cytoskeletal alterations had an activating influence on Ca++-independent BK channels and caused a 3–4-fold rise in P o , but patch excision and channel isolation from the natural environment provoked the strongest increase in P o , from 0.07 ± 0.03 to 0.73 ± 0.04. This activation process operated slowly, on a minute time scale and can be most easily explained with the loss of a membrane-associated inhibitory particle. Once activated, Ca++-independent BK channels reacted sensitively to a Mg-ATP supplemented brain tissue extract with a P o decline, from 0.60 ± 0.06 to 0.10 ± 0.05. Heated extracts failed to induce significant channel inhibition, providing evidence for a heat-unstable molecule with reassociates with the internal channel surface to reestablish channel inhibition. A dualistic channel control, by this membrane-associated molecule and by the cytoskeleton seems possible.
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Received: 16 July 1997/Revised: 3 November 1997
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Benz, I., Meyer, D. & Kohlhardt, M. Properties and the Cytoskeletal Control of Ca++-independent Large Conductance K+ Channels in Neonatal Rat Hippocampal Neurons. J. Membrane Biol. 161, 275–286 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002329900334
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002329900334