Reconstitution of a K(ATP) channel from basolateral membranes of Necturus enterocytes. Mayorga-Wark, O., W. P. Dubinsky, and Stanley G. Schultz. Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical School at Houston
APStracts 2:0123C, 1995.
We have previously reported that basolateral membrane vesicles isolated from Necturus small intestinal epithelial cells and incorporated into planar phospholipid bilayers display a highly selective "maxi" conductance K+ channel whose open-time probability is affected by voltage. We now report that this channel is inhibited by MgATP in the solution bathing the intracellular face of the channel but not by Mg2+ or the Na+ or K+ salts of ATP; the effects of MgATP can be prevented or reversed by MgADP. The channel is also inhibited by the nonhydrolyzable ATP analogue MgATP-[gamma]-S and the sulfonylurea derivatives tolbutamide and glibenclamide; all of these agents are effective in the intracellular compartment but not when added to the extracellular compartment alone. Channel activity is stimulated by the "K+ channel opener", diazoxide, which also reverses the effect of glibenclamide but not of MgATP. The possible role of this channel as a mediator of the parallelism between basolateral membrane Na+-K+ pump activity and the macroscopic K+ conductance of that barrier is discussed.

Received 21 November 1994; accepted in final form 13 February
1995.
APS Manuscript Number C684-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 10 March 1995.