Fig. 3.
Pendrin gene ablation changes intrinsic epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) properties and ENaC channel density. A: typical single channel recordings of principal cell apical membrane taken from CCDs of aldosterone-treated pendrin-null [knockout (KO)] and WT mice. The patch on the tubule from the WT mouse has two observable current levels implying at least two channels in the patch, whereas the pendrin-null patch appears to have only one level and therefore only one channel. B: ENaC activity (NPo) in CCD principal cells from aldosterone-treated WT and pendrin-null mice. C and D: pendrin gene ablation reduced NPo by reducing both the number of channels (N; C) as well as open probability (Po; D). Numbers within the bars for NPo are the number of individual patches from 24 tubules from 8 WT mice and 27 tubules from 9 pendrin-null mice. *P < 0.05.