Original Article

Existence of memory in ion channels

Ji-qian FANG, Tao-yang NI, Zhi-ying YOU, Jing FAN, Yong-yuan GUAN

Abstract

AIM: To explore the existence of memory in Ca(2+)-dependent K+ channels of cultured aortic smooth muscle cells (ASMC) and voltage-dependent K+ channels of clonal pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells.
METHODS: Calculating the sample auto-correlation functions based on the digitized signals or the 0-1 series corresponding to closing and opening of the channels after routine evaluation, rather than the sequence of sojourn times.
RESULTS: The sample auto-correlations showed a decreasing trend with elapse of time, stable to repeated observations under the same conditions and sensitive to treatments.
CONCLUSION: The attribute of memory exists in some single channels as an intrinsic feature of them, independent of any extrinsic assumptions on missing observations due to limited time resolution.
Keywords:

Article Options

Download Citation

Cited times in Scopus