We investigate the effects of channel noise on firing coherence of Watts-Strogatz small-world networks consisting of biophysically realistic HH neurons having a fraction of blocked voltage-gated sodium and potassium ion channels embedded in their neuronal membranes. The intensity of channel noise is determined by the number of non-blocked ion channels, which depends on the fraction of working i...

AIMS Various pathological conditions can alter cardiac electrophysiological properties not only by physiological responses but also by modifying the gene expression of ion channels (electrical remodelling). To investigate the underlying mechanisms of the latter, electrophysiological alterations would require a simultaneous and comprehensive analysis of the mRNA level of the ion channel genes. ...

BACKGROUND To what extent do identified neurons from different animals vary in their expression of ion channel genes? In neurons of the same type, is ion channel expression highly variable and/or is there any relationship between ion channel expression that is conserved? METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To address these questions we measured ion channel mRNA in large cells (LCs) of the crab car...

The influence of intrinsic channel noise on the spontaneous spiking activity of poisoned excitable membrane patches is studied by use of a stochastic generalization of the Hodgkin-Huxley model. Internal noise stemming from the stochastic dynamics of individual ion channels is known to affect the collective properties of the whole ion channel cluster. For example, there exists an optimal size of...

Diazepam and (--)-pentobarbital each potentiate the increase in chloride ion conductance produced by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) i voltage-clamped mouse spinal neurons grown in culture. Fluctuation analysis was used to compare the properties of elementary ion-channel events underlying the chloride conductance produced by GABA alone and during potentiation by the two drugs. Neither drug alter...

introduction: the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (cftr) chloride (cl−) channel is an essential component of epithelial cl− transport systems in many organs. cftr is mainly expressed in the lung and other tissues, such as testis, duodenum, trachea and kidney. the ubiquitin ligase neural precursor cells expressed developmentally down-regulated protein 4-2 (nedd4-2) has previo...

Ion transport proteins must remove an ion's hydration shell to coordinate the ion selectively on the basis of its size and charge. To discover how the K channel solves this fundamental aspect of ion conduction, we solved the structure of the KcsA K channel in complex with a monoclonal Fab antibody fragment at 2.0 AÊ resolution. Here we show how the K channel displaces water molecules around an ...