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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0022-1295/1998//795/ $5.00
Journal of General Physiology, Volume 111, Number 6, 1998

Article

Idiosyncratic Gating of HERG-like K+ Channels in Microglia

Peter S. Pennefather*,{ddagger},§, Wei Zhou||, and Thomas E. DeCoursey||

From the * Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S2, Canada; {ddagger} Playfair Neuroscience Unit, Toronto Hospital Research Institute, and § Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada; and || Department of Molecular Biophysics and Physiology, Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612

A simple kinetic model is presented to explain the gating of a HERG-like voltage-gated K+ conductance described in the accompanying paper (Zhou, W., F.S. Cayabyab, P.S. Pennefather, L.C. Schlichter, and T.E. DeCoursey. 1998. J. Gen. Physiol. 111:781–794). The model proposes two kinetically distinct closing pathways, a rapid one favored by depolarization (deactivation) and a slow one favored by hyperpolarization (inactivation). The overlap of these two processes leads to a window current between –50 and +20 mV with a peak at –36 mV of ~12% maximal conductance. The near absence of depolarization-activated outward current in microglia, compared with HERG channels expressed in oocytes or cardiac myocytes, can be explained if activation is shifted negatively in microglia. As seen with experimental data, availability predicted by the model was more steeply voltage dependent, and the midpoint more positive when determined by making the holding potential progressively more positive at intervals of 20 s (starting at –120 mV), rather than progressively more negative (starting at 40 mV). In the model, this hysteresis was generated by postulating slow and ultra-slow components of inactivation. The ultra-slow component takes minutes to equilibrate at –40 mV but is steeply voltage dependent, leading to protocol-dependent modulation of the HERG-like current. The data suggest that "deactivation" and "inactivation" are coupled through the open state. This is particularly evident in isotonic Cs+, where a delayed and transient outward current develops on depolarization with a decay time constant more voltage dependent and slower than the deactivation process observed at the same potential after a brief hyperpolarization.

Key Words: gating kinetics • ion channels • deactivation • inactivation • erg

Address correspondence to Peter S. Pennefather, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, 19 Russell St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S2, Canada. E-mail: p.pennefather{at}utoronto.ca

Abbreviations: HERG, human ether-à-go-go-related gene (erg) and its product


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W. Zhou, F. S. Cayabyab, P. S. Pennefather, L. C. Schlichter, and T. E. DeCoursey
HERG-like K+ Channels in Microglia
J. Gen. Physiol., June 1, 1998; 111(6): 781 - 794.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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