Talk:Potassium channel

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Blocking agents for potassium channels also are: Cs+,H+,Ba++,Rb+,Sr++,Mg++,Na+,Capsaicin, Noxiustoxin, Chlotrimazol, Spermine, Spermidine

Kir-channels can shut down secretion of growth hormone or prolactin from the anterior pituitary (see Bertil Hille: ion channels of excitable membrane) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.5.4.128 (talk) 11:54, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

"Potassium channels are found in most cells, and control the electrical excitability of the cell membrane." Strictly speaking, K+ channels are also expressed in non-excitable cells, such as red blood cells, epithelial cells, endothelial cells, etc. I'm taking the liberty of changing this statement. I also re-organized the page a little, added references to cardiac and pancreatic tissue and added another reference.

These K+ channels are incorrect. Please review recent papers by Roderick MacKinnon, for which he received a Nobel prize for correctly photographing (through x-ray crystallography) a channel and discovering how they truly function, it is much less graceful and elaborate as that which is on this page. (from anon, jan 24)

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[edit] Types table

There seems to be some mistake in the table of potassium channel in the row on inwardly rectifying channels. It doesn't compare to the actual article on inwardly rectifying potassium channels. Reading this, you get the feeling that there is only G-protein-activated and ATP-sensitive kirs. That's not what Inward-rectifier potassium ion channel says. I'm not enough of an expert to know which one is right though. Does anybody know? --LasseFolkersen (talk) 09:09, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

The article is correct and the table is misleading. The table only lists Kir3 (G-protein regulated) and Kir6 (ATP regulated) while leaving out Kir1/2/4/5. I'll try and alter the table if I get a chance. --Dpryan (talk) 19:41, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. I have modified the table to add ROMK, but I think there may be too many subtypes to list in one table. In addition, the current table is somewhat focused on pharmacology (i.e., blocker and activators) and many potassium channels have no known pharmacology. Hence may I suggest that we simply point out that this table is not exhaustive and refer the reader to the respective potassium channel class pages for a complete list of class members? I have edited the article to try to make this clear. Cheers. Boghog2 (talk) 12:38, 9 March 2008 (UTC)