title: Increase in voltage gated potassium currents of human lymphocytes on culture.
abstract: Voltage gated potassium channels present in T lymphocytes play an important role during lymphocyte activation. Though an increase in potassium currents has been reported in activated lymphocytes, changes in potassium currents in culture without activation by antigen or mitogen has not been reported. The peak potassium current densities on day 1 and day 5 of culture have been compared in this study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were separated by density gradient centrifugation. Lymphocytes were separated from PBMCs by negative selection using anti-CD14 coated magnetic beads and cultured under appropriate conditions without antigenic or mitogenic stimulation. Lymphocytes were patched on day 1 or day 5 of culture. Voltage gated potassium currents were recorded by whole cell patch clamp technique using a depolarizing protocol. The mean of peak current densities recorded at +60 mV on day 1 of culture was 228.12 +/- 89.39 pA/pF (n = 7) and on day 5 of culture was 468.96 +/- 192.07 pA/pF (n = 7). The difference between the current densities on day 1 and day 5 was found to be significant. Change in electrophysiological characteristics can lead to functional changes in the lymphocytes and this should be considered when culturing lymphocytes in vitro for research and clinical use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Christian Medical College, Vellore 632 002, India. snehalatha@cmcvellore.ac.in
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Snekalatha
authors.forename: Praghalathan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kanthakumar
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015221:Potassium Channels