Inward Rectifier Potassium Channels: Membrane Lipid-Dependent Mechanosensitive Gates in Brain Vascular Cells.

ABSTRACT: Cerebral arteries contain two primary and interacting cell types, smooth muscle (SMCs) and endothelial cells (ECs), which are each capable of sensing particular hemodynamic forces to set basal tone and brain perfusion. These biomechanical stimuli help confer tone within arterial networks upon which local neurovascular stimuli function. Tone development is intimately tied to arterial membrane potential (V _M ) and changes in intracellular [Ca²⁺] driven by voltage-gated Ca²⁺ channels (VGCCs). Arterial V _M is in turn set by the dynamic interplay among ion channel species, the strongly inward rectifying K⁺ (Kir) channel being of special interest. Kir2 channels possess a unique biophysical signature in that they strongly rectif

SUBMITTER: Sancho M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8995785 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature