Chronic intrauterine pulmonary hypertension decreases calcium-sensitive potassium channel mRNA expression

1  Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455; and 2  Division of Pediatric Pulmonology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado 80218 Calcium-sensitive potassium (K...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology 2000-11, Vol.279 (5), p.857-L862
Main Authors: Cornfield, David N, Resnik, Ernesto R, Herron, Jean M, Abman, Steven H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Delayed Rectifier Potassium Channels
Female
Humans
Hypertension, Pulmonary - embryology
Hypertension, Pulmonary - genetics
Lung - embryology
Molecular Sequence Data
Potassium Channels - chemistry
Potassium Channels - genetics
Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated
Pregnancy
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Sequence Alignment
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Sheep
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Summary:1  Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455; and 2  Division of Pediatric Pulmonology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado 80218 Calcium-sensitive potassium (K Ca ) channels play a critical role in mediating perinatal pulmonary vasodilation. Because infants with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) have blunted vasodilator responses to birth-related stimuli, we hypothesized that lung K Ca channel gene expression is decreased in PPHN. To test this hypothesis, we measured K Ca channel gene expression in distal lung homogenates from both fetal lambs with severe pulmonary hypertension caused by prolonged compression of the ductus arteriosus and age-matched, sham-operated animals (controls). After at least 9 days of compression of the ductus arteriosus, fetal lambs were killed. To determine lung K Ca channel mRNA levels, primers were designed against the known sequence of the K Ca channel and used in semiquantitative RT-PCR, with lung 18S rRNA content as an internal control. Compared to that in control lambs, lung K Ca channel mRNA content in the PPHN group was reduced by 26 ± 6% ( P  
ISSN:1040-0605
1522-1504
DOI:10.1152/ajplung.2000.279.5.l857