BACKGROUND Myocardial protection by volatile anesthetics involves activation of cardiac adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels. The authors have previously shown that isoflurane enhances sensitivity of the sarcolemmal K(ATP) channel to the opener, pinacidil. Because reactive oxygen species seem to be mediators in anesthetic preconditioning, the authors investigated whether...

Marked prolongation of cardiac action potentials and of QT intervals has been associated with early afterdepolarizations and triggered activity in vitro and with ventricular tachycardia in vivo. Because the antihypertensive potassium channel activators pinacidil and cromakalim are known to accelerate repolarization in cardiac tissues, we performed in vitro and in vivo experiments to test the hy...

UNLABELLED The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of pinacidil and diazoxide, the activators of sarcolemmal and mitochondrial ATP-sensitive K(+) channels (K(ATP)), respectively, on heart rate and force of contraction in female and male guinea pigs. Experiments were performed on the isolated, spontaneously beating, right atria obtained from guinea pigs of both genders. First series...

Conduction of changes in diameter plays an important role in the coordination of peripheral vascular resistance, and thereby, in the control of arterial blood pressure. It is thought that conduction of vasomotor signals relies on the electrotonic spread of changes in membrane potential from a site of stimulation through gap junctions connecting the cells of the vessel wall. To explore this idea...

-ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels were discovered in ventricular cells, but their roles in the heart remain mysterious. K(ATP) channels have also been found in numerous other tissues, including vascular smooth muscle. Two pore-forming subunits, Kir6.1 and Kir6.2, contribute to the diversity of K(ATP) channels. To determine which subunits are operative in the cardiovascular system and t...

Conduction of changes in diameter plays an important role in the coordination of peripheral vascular resistance and, thereby, in the control of arterial blood pressure. It is thought that conduction of vasomotor signals relies on the electrotonic spread of changes in membrane potential from a site of stimulation through gap junctions connecting the cells of the vessel wall. To explore this idea...

Matar, W., T. M. Nosek, D. Wong, and J.-M. Renaud. Pinacidil suppresses contractility and preserves energy but glibenclamide has no effect during muscle fatigue. Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol. 278: C404–C416, 2000.—The effects of 10 μM glibenclamide, an ATP-sensitive K1 (KATP) channel blocker, and 100 μM pinacidil, a channel opener, were studied to determine how the KATP channel affects mouse ex...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine whether ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channel agonists exert a beneficial effect on the structural, functional, and molecular features of the remodeling heart in infarcted rats. BACKGROUND Myocardial K(ATP) channels have been implicated in the ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction by inhibition of 70-kDa S6 (p70S6) kinase. ...

We studied the systemic and coronary hemodynamic effects of a new antihypertensive agent, pinacidil, in nine morphine-sedated chronically instrumented dogs with one-kidney renal hypertension and eight similarly treated sham-operated normotensive dogs. The renal hypertensive dogs exhibited higher mean aortic blood pressure, total peripheral vascular resistance, and plasma renin activity before p...