BACKGROUND Pregnancy is associated with a faster heart rate (HR), which is a risk factor for arrhythmias. However, the underlying mechanisms for this increased HR are poorly understood. Therefore, this study was performed to gain mechanistic insight into the pregnancy-induced increase in HR. METHODS AND RESULTS Using surface ECG we observed that pregnant (P) mice have faster HR (531±14 beats ...

BACKGROUND Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a superfamily of broadly expressed ion channels with diverse physiological roles. TRPC1, TRPC3, and TRPC6 are believed to contribute to cardiac hypertrophy in mouse models. Human mutations in TRPM4 have been linked to progressive familial heart block. TRPM7 is a divalent-permeant channel and kinase of unknown function, recently implicat...

Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated cation (HCN) channels are the molecular substrate of the hyperpolarization-activated inward current (I(h)). Because the developmental profile of HCN channels in the thalamus is not well understood, we combined electrophysiological, molecular, immunohistochemical, EEG recordings in vivo, and computer modeling techniques to examine HCN gene expr...

AIMS Earlier studies on cardiac pacemaker activity were inconclusive regarding the electrophysiological mechanism(s) of first electrical activity generation during cardiac development. We therefore aimed to investigate the role of ion channels in action potential (AP) formation and pacemaker activity during very early murine heart development (E8.5). METHODS AND RESULTS The voltage clamp mode...

Although Purkinje fibers (PFs) play an important role in cardiac electrophysiology, almost nothing is known about the expression of ion-channel subunits in PFs. We applied competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, and immunocytochemistry to compare the expression of ion-channel subunit mRNA and protein in canine PFs versus ventricular muscle (VM). For transi...

OBJECTIVE I(f), encoded by the hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-modulated (HCN) channel gene family, modulates cardiac pacing. During cardiac pacing, changes in membrane potential are rapid, preventing the very slow HCN channels from reaching equilibrium. Here, we examined the properties of HCN channels under non-equilibrium conditions to shed insight into how different HCN isofor...

Age-related deterioration of pacemaker function has been documented in mammals, including humans. In aged isolated sinoatrial node tissues and cells, reduction in the spontaneous action potential (AP) firing rate was associated with deterioration of intracellular and membrane mechanisms; however, their relative contribution to age-associated deficient pacemaker function is not known. Interestin...

Hyperpolarization-activated currents (Ih) are present in several neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system. However, Ih in neurons of the vomeronasal organ (VNO) is not well characterized. We studied the properties of Ih in sensory neurons from acute slices of mouse VNO. In voltage-clamp studies, Ih was identified by the characteristic kinetics of activation, voltage dependence, and ...

Retinal bipolar cells make up a class of at least 11 distinct interneurons that have been classified through morphological and molecular approaches. Previous work has shown that the paired-like homeodomain transcription factor Vsx1 is essential for the proper development of a subset of these interneurons. In Vsx1-null mice, bipolar cells are properly specified but exhibit terminal differentiati...

The hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels, or cardiac (I(f))/neuronal (I(h)) time- and voltage-dependent inward cation current channels, are conventionally considered as monovalent-selective channels. Recently we discovered that calcium ions can permeate through HCN4 and I(h) channels in neurons. This raises the possibility of Ca(2+) permeation in I(f), the I(h) co...