Volatile anesthetics alter tissue excitability by decreasing the extent of gap junction-mediated cell-cell coupling and by altering the activity of the channels that underlie the action potential. In the present study, we demonstrate, using dual whole-cell voltage-clamp techniques, that coexpression of connexin (Cx) 40 and Cx43 rendered cells more sensitive to uncoupling by halothane than cells...

All vertebrate gap junction channels display voltage-dependent gating. Historically, voltage-dependent behaviors have been characterized as being transjunctional voltage (Vj) and membrane voltage (Vm) dependent. The transjunctional voltage dependence of gap junction channels composed of two identical hemichan-nels, each composed of identical connexins subunits (a homotypic channel) is usually s...

All vertebrate gap junction channels display voltage-dependent gating. Historically, voltage-dependent behaviors have been characterized as being transjunctional voltage (Vj) and membrane voltage (Vm) dependent. The transjunctional voltage dependence of gap junction channels composed of two identical hemichan-nels, each composed of identical connexins subunits (a homotypic channel) is usually s...

Several rigorous turbulent models have been developed in the past years and it can be seen that more research is needed to reach a better understanding of their generality and precision by verifying their applications for distinct hydraulic phenomena; under certain assumptions. This survey evaluates the performance of Standard k-ε, Realizable k-ε, RNG k-ε, k-ω and RSM models in predicting flow ...

Intercellular tight junctions form selectively permeable barriers that seal the paracellular space. Trans-tight junction flux has been measured across large epithelial surfaces, but conductance across individual channels has never been measured. We report a novel trans-tight junction patch clamp technique that detects flux across individual claudin-2 channels within the tight junction of cultur...

Gap junction channels are composed of members of a multi-gene family of proteins called connexins. These proteins are named by the abbreviation Cx followed by the molecular weight of the specific protein. Mammalian cardiac myocytes express Cx43, Cx45, and Cx40, the former being the major cardiac gap junction protein, which is expressed in atrial and ventricular myocytes as well as in selected r...

In the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane of skeletal muscle, the ryanodine receptor forms an aqueous pore identified as the calcium-release pathway that operates during excitation-contraction coupling. The purified ryanodine receptor channel has now been shown to have four properties usually associated with gap junction channels: (i) a large nonspecific voltage-dependent conductance consisting of...

This paper applies an evolutionary algorithm, the particle swarm optimization (PSO), to design the optimum open channel section. Depth, channel side slope and bottom width are considered as the variables for rectangular, triangular and trapezoidal channels, respectively. The objective function is minimizing the construction cost of the channel section. MATLAB software is used for programming an...