Functional And Expression Studies Of Potassium Channels Subtypes On Rat Vascular Smooth Muscle Tissue Under Physiological And Pathological Conditions

Potassium channels are a family of widely expressed and most important ion channels. They play critical roles in the maintenance of resting membrane potential of excitable cells and contractile tone of smooth muscles (vascular, urinary bladder and airway smooth muscles et al); in the regulation of excitability of neurons, pace-making event in heart and release of pancreatic (3 cell. Potassium channels have a most complicated classification (including functional and structural classification) among the membrane ion channels, various subfamilies of potassium channels play various roles in the regulation and function of cells. There were various potassium currents recorded in cardiovascular tissues, especially in myocardium in which almost all known potassium currents were reported. Recent years the molecular biology studies in vascular smooth muscle are becoming a focus in the field of potassium channels. It is accepted that potassium channels play a central role in the maintenance and regulation of resting membrane potential in vascular smooth muscle. At present it is few reported and unclear that which subtypes of potassium channels were expressed and play functional regulatory roles in vascular smooth muscle under physiological and pathological conditions. The aims of this paper is to study the...