There are four major classes of potassium channels: Some toxins, such as dendrotoxin, are potent because they block potassium channels. They also regulate cellular processes such as the secretion of hormones ( e.g., insulin release from beta-cells in the pancreas) so their malfunction can lead to diseases (such as diabetes). Potassium channels may also be involved in maintaining vascular tone. In excitable cells, such as neurons, the delayed counterflow of potassium ions shapes the action potential.īy contributing to the regulation of the cardiac action potential duration in cardiac muscle, malfunction of potassium channels may cause life-threatening arrhythmias.

Biologically, these channels act to set or reset the resting potential in many cells. Potassium channels function to conduct potassium ions down their electrochemical gradient, doing so both rapidly (up to the diffusion rate of K + ions in bulk water) and selectively (excluding, most notably, sodium despite the sub-angstrom difference in ionic radius).

Prism essential channel list