Remodelling of human atrial K+ currents but not ion channel expression by chronic β-blockade

Marshall, Gillian E and Russell, Julie A and Tellez, James O and Jhund, Pardeep S and Currie, Susan and Dempster, John and Boyett, Mark R and Kane, Kathleen A and Rankin, Andrew C and Workman, Antony J (2012) Remodelling of human atrial K+ currents but not ion channel expression by chronic β-blockade. Pflugers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology, 463 (4). pp. 537-548. ISSN 0031-6768

Abstract

Chronic β-adrenoceptor antagonist (β-blocker) treatment in patients is associated with a potentially anti-arrhythmic prolongation of the atrial action potential duration (APD), which may involve remodelling of repolarising K(+) currents. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic β-blockade on transient outward, sustained and inward rectifier K(+) currents (I(TO), I(KSUS) and I(K1)) in human atrial myocytes and on the expression of underlying ion channel subunits. Ion currents were recorded from human right atrial isolated myocytes using the whole-cell-patch clamp technique. Tissue mRNA and protein levels were measured using real time RT-PCR and Western blotting. Chronic β-blockade was associated with a 41% reduction in I(TO) density: 9.3 ± 0.8 (30 myocytes, 15 patients) vs 15.7 ± 1.1 pA/pF (32, 14), p

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