Figure 15.
Molecular identity of voltage-gated K+ (Kv) channels in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC). (a) Structural arrangement of Kv channel α- and β-subunits (a), the tetrameric association of α–subunits (b) and the ball-and-chain inactivation mechanism for IK(V) (b). (b) The mRNA expression of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction products using Kv1 (a), Kvβ (b), Kv2 (c), Kv3 (d), Kv4 (e), Kv5 (f), Kv6 (g), Kv9 (h) and Kv11 (i) primers in human PASMC (P) and brain (b) tissues. “M,” 100 bp DNA ladder. (c) A phylogenetic tree showing the inferred evolutionary relationships among different Kv channel genes