Potassium leak channels (K2P) activity is regulated by membrane cholesterol

Potassium leak channels (K2P) play a central role in setting the membrane resting potential and their activity is regulated by physical and chemical effectors such as temperature, pH, mechanical stretch and phosphorylation. Cholesterol is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes and is a main component of lipid rafts, which are cholesterol/sphingomyeline enriched microdomains in the membrane. It was found that membrane cholesterol regulates the activity of several membrane proteins. In this study, we characterized the effect of membrane cholesterol levels on K2P channels activity.