You will find reasons to accept that pacemaker mode could be influenced by K
The new SA node weighed against the ventricle expresses calcium supplements painful and sensitive adenylyl cyclase isoforms [ 105 ]
50 pS in contrast to the situation in the ventricle where it is closer to 70–80 pS [ 95 ]. ATP channels containing the Kir6.1 subunit. Mice with global genetic deletion of Kir6.1 develop SAN failure and also heart block which leads to sudden death [ 93 , 96 ]. In our own studies we have studied mice with selective deletion of Kir6.1 in vascular smooth muscle or endothelium [ 93 , 97 ]. These mice do not show the rhythm disturbance even with provocations that might provoke vasospasm and suggest by exclusion a potential role for Kir6.1 in the SA and atrioventricular node [ 93 , 97 ].
We have explored this question in the mouse using cre\loxP technology [ 98 ]. We made use of a cre driver line that allows selective deletion of genes within the adult conduction system on the addition of tamoxifen [ 98 , 99 ]. The resulting knockout mice are labelled as cKO. We first isolated KATP currents in single SAN cells and find that only approximately half the cells contain currents [ 98 ]. This is not surprising given the heterogeneous electrophysiological nature of the SAN [ 100 ]. The pharmacology of the response is also interesting with diazoxide activating and tolbutamide inhibiting and this profile is more typical of SUR1 than SUR2 [ 101 ]. Read more
