Partners in crime: how two Sox proteins cooperate to specify arterial fate

Mechanisms and Physiological Implications of Cooperative Gating of Ion Channels Clusters

Ion channels play a central role in the regulation of nearly every cellular process. Dating back to the classic 1952 Hodgkin-Huxley model of the generation of the action potential, ion channels have always been thought of as independent agents. A myriad of recent experimental findings exploiting advances in electrophysiology, structural biology, and imaging techniques, however, have posed a serious challenge to this long-held axiom as several classes of ion channels appear to open and close in a coordinated, cooperative manner. Ion channel cooperativity ranges from variable-sized oligomeric cooperative gating in voltage-gated, dihydropyridine-sensitive Ca_v1.2 and Ca_v1.3 channels to obligatory dimeric assembly and gating of voltage-gated Na_v1.5 channels. Potassium channels, transient receptor potential channels, hyperpolarization cyclic nucleotide-activated channels, ryanodine receptors (RyRs), and inositol trisphosphate receptors (IP₃Rs) have also been shown to gate cooperatively. The implications of cooperative gating of these ion channels range from fine tuning excitation-contraction coupling in muscle cells to regulating cardiac function and vascular tone, to modulation of action potential and conduction velocity in neurons and cardiac cells, and to control of pace-making activity in the heart. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms leading to cooperative gating of ion channels, their physiological consequences and how alterations in cooperative gating of ion channels may induce a range of clinically significant pathologies.

Increased coupled gating of L-type Ca2+ channels during hypertension and Timothy syndrome

RATIONALE

L-Type (Cav1.2) Ca(2+) channels are critical regulators of muscle and neural function. Although Cav1.2 channel activity varies regionally, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this heterogeneity.

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that Cav1.2 channels can gate coordinately.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We used optical and electrophysiological approaches to record Cav1.2 channel activity in cardiac, smooth muscle, and tsA-201 cells expressing Cav1.2 channels. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that small clusters of Cav1.2 channels can open and close in tandem. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer and electrophysiological studies suggest that this coupling of Cav1.2 channels involves transient interactions between neighboring channels via their C termini. The frequency of coupled gating events increases in hypertensive smooth muscle and in cells expressing a mutant Cav1.2 channel that causes arrhythmias and autism in humans with Timothy syndrome (LQT8).

CONCLUSIONS

Coupled gating of Cav1.2 channels may represent a novel mechanism for the regulation of Ca(2+) influx and excitability in neurons, cardiac, and arterial smooth muscle under physiological and pathological conditions.

Brothers and sisters: molecular insights into arterial-venous heterogeneity

The molecular differences between arteries and veins are genetically predetermined and are evident even before the first embryonic heart beat. Although ephrinB2 and EphB4 are expressed in cells that will ultimately differentiate into arteries and veins, respectively, many other genes have been shown to play a significant role in cell fate determination. The expression patterns of ephrinB2 and EphB4 are restricted to arterial-venous boundaries, and Eph/ephrin signaling provides repulsive cues at arterial-venous boundaries that are thought to prevent intermixing of arterial- and venous-fated cells. However, the maintenance of arterial-venous fate is susceptible to some degree of plasticity. Thus, in response to signals from the ambient microenvironment and shear stress, there is flow-mediated intercalation of the arteries and veins that ultimately leads to the formation of a functional, closed-loop circulation. In addition, cells in the blood vessels of each organ undergo epigenetic, morphological, and functional adaptive changes that are specific to the proximate function of their cognate organ(s). These adaptive changes result in an interorgan and intraorgan vessel heterogeneity that manifest clinically in a disparate response of different organs to identical risk factors and injury in the same animal. In this review, we focus on the molecular and physiological factors influencing arterial-venous heterogeneity between and within different organ(s). We explore arterial-venous differences in selected organs, as well as their respective endothelial cell architectural organization that results in their inter- and intraorgan heterogeneity.