Modelo caótico e a memória da cinética dos canais iônicos

Abstract

Ionic channels are formed by one or few protein molecules found in biological membranes and constitute one of the possible ways for the transport of ions through these membranes. These proteins can assume different conformational open and closed states, phenomenon named ion channel kinetics. The transitions from one state to another are dependent on the potential energy barrier that separates them and can be controlled by electric field, ions, chemical substances and other physical agents. The dwell times in which the proteinchannel stays in one these conformational states have been modeled assuming that the process is Markovian. A chaotic model also was proposed for modeling the ion channel kinetics (LIEBOVITCH e TÓTH., 1991).In this work we use the R/S Hurst analysis to test the long-range correlation found in calcium-activated potassium channel kinetics in Leydig cells. The Hurst coefficient H, a parameter that show the memory existent in a kinetic process (NOGUEIRA et al., 1995), was calculated to a calcium-activated potassium channel in Leydig cells recording and it was equal to H = 0,66±0,044 (n=4), disclosing that the system presents a persistent memory. The R/S analysis when applied to the opening and closing dwell time series obtained from ion channel simulated data using a chaotic model was inadequate to describe the long-term correlation previously found in the experimental data. As conclusion, this work shows that: (i) really, opening and closing dwell times for the single calciumactivated potassium channel of Leydig cells present long-term correlation and (ii) the chaotic model, proposed by Liebovitch and Thót (1991), is not adequate to describe the memory found in the kinetic of this channel.