Species-dependent differences in the inhibition of various potassium currents and in their effects on repolarization in cardiac ventricular muscle

Even though rodents are accessible model animals, their electrophysiological properties are deeply different from those of humans, making the translation of rat studies to humans rather difficult. We compared the mechanisms of ventricular repolarization in various animal models to those of humans by measuring cardiac ventricular action potentials from ventricular papillary muscle preparations using conventional microelectrodes and applying selective inhibitors of various potassium transmembrane ion currents. Inhibition of the I K1 current (10 µmol/L barium chloride) significantly prolonged rat ventricular repolarization, but only slightly prolonged it in dogs, and did not affect it in humans. On the contrary, I Kr inhibition (50 nmol/L dofetilide) significantly prolonged repolarization in humans, rabbits, and dogs, but not in rats. Inhibition of the I Kur current (1 µmol/L XEN-D0101) only prolonged rat ventricular repolarization and had no effect in humans or dogs. Inhibition of the I Ks (500 nmol/L HMR-1556) and I to currents (100 µmol/L chromanol-293B) elicited similar effects in all investigated species. We conclude that dog ventricular preparations have the strongest translational value and rat ventricular preparations have the weakest translational value in cardiac electrophysiological experiments.