Population
Isolated myocytes from rat cerebral arteries
Design
Preclinical
Key result
Ca2+ sparks increased BK channel activity up to 6 x 10^5-fold, indicating that local intracellular Ca2+ reaches micromolar levels to activate nearby BK channels in arterial smooth muscle cells.
Authors
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Supports spark-BK coupling in isolated myocytes; leaves open physiological relevance for arterial tone regulation.
Local Ca2+ release events (sparks) deliver micromolar concentrations of Ca2+ to activate nearby BK channels in arterial smooth muscle cells.
Pérez et al. (2001) studied this question. Ca2+ sparks was evaluated on BK channel activity. Ca2+ sparks increased BK channel activity up to 6 x 10^5-fold, indicating that local intracellular Ca2+ reaches micromolar levels to activate nearby BK channels in arterial smooth muscle cells.