AI Article Synopsis

  • Scientists have found that potassium ions (K) are really important for how cells work and behave.
  • They created special tools called GEPIIs that can easily detect and show changes in potassium levels inside and outside of cells in real-time.
  • With GEPIIs, researchers discovered new ways potassium changes in cells can happen, especially in pancreatic cells, which could help us learn more about how our bodies function.

Article Abstract

Changes in intra- and extracellular potassium ion (K) concentrations control many important cellular processes and related biological functions. However, our current understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns of physiological and pathological K changes is severely limited by the lack of practicable detection methods. We developed K-sensitive genetically encoded, Förster resonance energy transfer-(FRET) based probes, called GEPIIs, which enable quantitative real-time imaging of K dynamics. GEPIIs as purified biosensors are suitable to directly and precisely quantify K levels in different body fluids and cell growth media. GEPIIs expressed in cells enable time-lapse and real-time recordings of global and local intracellular K signals. Hitherto unknown Ca-triggered, organelle-specific K changes were detected in pancreatic beta cells. Recombinant GEPIIs also enabled visualization of extracellular K fluctuations in vivo with 2-photon microscopy. Therefore, GEPIIs are relevant for diverse K assays and open new avenues for live-cell K imaging.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5681659PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01615-zDOI Listing

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