Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Isolation and Kv Channel Recordings in Murine Atrial and Ventricular Cardiomyocytes
Published on: March 12, 2013
The cardiac inward rectifier K+ channel subunit, CIR, does not comprise the ATP-sensitive K+ channel, IKATP
G Krapivinsky1, L Krapivinsky, B Velimirovic
1Department of Pharmacology, Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
Abstract:
Cardiac IKACh is comprised of two inwardly rectifying K+ channel subunits, CIR and GIRK1 (Krapivinsky, G., Gordon, E. G., Wickman, K., Velimirovic, B., Krapivinsky, L., and Clapham, D. E. (1995) Nature 374, 135-141). A cardiac protein virtually identical to CIR, termed rcKATP-1 (Ashford, M. L. J., Bond, C. T., Blair, T. A., and Adelman, J. P. (1994) Nature 370, 456-459), was reported to form an ATP-sensitive inwardly rectifying K+ channel, IKATP. We attempted to determine whether CIR alone or together with an unknown protein(s) participated in the formation of cardiac IKATP. Expression of CIR in insect, oocyte, and mammalian cell systems did not increase the appearance of ATP-sensitive currents, but rather gave rise to unique strongly inwardly rectifying, G protein-regulated K+ currents. CIR protein is found exclusively in atria, in contrast to the predominance of IKATP functional activity in ventricle. Also, CIR was completely depleted from heart membrane after immunodepletion of GIRK1. We conclude that CIR/rcKATP-1 is not a subunit of cardiac IKATP and that GIRK1 is the only channel protein coassociating with CIR in heart.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Primary Active Transport
Primary Active Transport
Non-gated Ion Channels
Compared to the gated ion channels, the non-gated channels, also known as leakage or passive channels, have no gating mechanism.
ATP Driven Pumps II: P-type Pumps
A typical P-type pump has three cytosolic domains: nucleotide-binding (N), phosphorylation (P), and activator (A) domains. These domains are connected to the membrane-spanning helices by short amino acid segments. ATP hydrolysis and covalent phosphoenzyme intermediate formation are crucial parts of the catalytic cycle. At the highly...
G-Protein Gated Ion Channels
Sensory organs,...
Cardiac Action Potential
The cardiac action potential process involves a series of phases characterized by the movement of ions across the cardiac cell membranes, leading to the depolarization and repolarization of the cardiac myocytes.
Ionic Basis of Cardiac Action Potentials

