Voltage-gated sodium channels drive the initial depolarization phase of the cardiac action potential and therefore critically determine conduction of excitation through the heart. In patients, deletions or loss-of-function mutations of the cardiac sodium channel gene, SCN5A, have been associated with a wide range of arrhythmias including bradycardia (heart rate slowing), atrioventricular conduction delay, and ventricular fibrillation. The pathophysiological basis of these clinical conditions is unresolved. Here we show that disruption of the mouse cardiac sodium channel gene, Scn5a, causes intrauterine lethality in homozygotes with severe defects in ventricular morphogenesis whereas heterozygotes show normal survival. Whole-cell patch clamp analyses of isolated ventricular myocytes from adult Scn5a ؉/؊ mice demonstrate a Ϸ50% reduction in sodium conductance. Scn5a ؉/؊ hearts have several defects including impaired atrioventricular conduction, delayed intramyocardial conduction, increased ventricular refractoriness, and ventricular tachycardia with characteristics of reentrant excitation. These findings reconcile reduced activity of the cardiac sodium channel leading to slowed conduction with several apparently diverse clinical phenotypes, providing a model for the detailed analysis of the pathophysiology of arrhythmias. Cardiac arrhythmias, manifest clinically by symptoms of extra, slow, or rapid heart beats, form one of the most common groups of diseases (1). The detailed understanding of the pathophysiology of these conditions now seems possible (2), having been advanced by the identification of ion channel mutations in patients with these conditions (3-5). What has become clear is that the functional consequences of such mutations can be complex, resolved only by combining appropriate clinical, experimental, and theoretical approaches (2). Accordingly, the consequences of gainof-function mutations in the cardiac sodium channel gene, SCN5A, in patients with long-QT syndrome (LQT3) (6, 7), have been investigated by studies of clinical genotype-phenotype relationships (3)(4)(5)8) and their cellular electrophysiology (9, 10) by using computer models (11,12) and the construction of a transgenic mouse (13). The results of these various investigations have allowed a clearer picture to emerge of the pathophysiology of LQT3 (7).In addition to the descriptions of long-QT syndrome-associated mutations, loss-of-function mutations in SCN5A (14, 15) have been described in patients with phenotypic characteristics of bradycardia (16, 17), atrioventricular block (16, 18), and ventricular fibrillation (18)(19)(20)(21)(22). These observations suggest a central role for the sodium channel in the maintenance of the normal heart beat (23-25). The mechanism of arrhythmias in these conditions, however, remains unresolved, although fibrillation could result from delayed conduction, unidirectional block, and reentrant excitation (3, 4). We have used homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells to establish mice with a null mutatio...

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the gene encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). The principal manifestations of CF include increased concentration of Cl- in exocrine gland secretions, pancreatic insufficiency, chronic lung disease, intestinal blockage and malabsorption of fat, and male and female infertility. Insight into the function of CFTR can be gained by correlating its cell-specific expression with the physiology of those cells and with CF pathology. Determination of CFTR messenger RNA in rat tissues by in situ hybridization shows that it is specifically expressed in the ductal cells of the pancreas and the salivary glands. In the intestine, decreasing gradients of expression of the CFTR gene are observed on both the crypt-villus and the proximal-distal axes. This expression is consistent with CFTR being responsible for bidirectional Cl- transport, secretion in the intestinal crypts and reabsorption in the silivary gland ducts, and suggests that in these tissues CFTR functions as a regulated Cl- channel. In the lung, a broad band of hybridization includes the mucosa and submucosa of the bronchi and bronchioles. In the testis, CFTR expression is regulated during the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium. Postmeiotic expression is maximal in the round spermatids of stages VII and VIII, suggesting that CFTR plays a critical role in spermatogenesis and that deficiency of this function contributes to CF male infertility.

SUMMARYThe correlation between ontogenetic changes in the spectral absorption characteristics of retinal photoreceptors and expression of visual pigment opsins was investigated in the black bream, Acanthopagrus butcheri. To establish whether the spectral qualities of environmental light affected the complement of visual pigments during ontogeny, comparisons were made between fishes reared in: (1) broad spectrum aquarium conditions; (2) short wavelength-reduced conditions similar to the natural environment; or (3) the natural environment (wild-caught). Microspectrophotometry was used to determine the wavelengths of spectral sensitivity of the photoreceptors at four developmental stages: larval, post-settlement, juvenile and adult. The molecular sequences of the rod (Rh1) and six cone (SWS1, SWS2A and B, Rh2Aα and β, and LWS) opsins were obtained and their expression levels in larval and adult stages examined using quantitative RT-PCR. The changes in spectral sensitivity of the cones were related to the differing levels of opsin expression during ontogeny. During the larval stage the predominantly expressed opsin classes were SWS1, SWS2B and Rh2Aα, contrasting with SWS2A, Rh2Aβ and LWS in the adult. An increased proportion of long wavelength-sensitive double cones was found in fishes reared in the short wavelength-reduced conditions and in wildcaught animals, indicating that the expression of cone opsin genes is also regulated by environmental light.

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a lethal inherited disorder affecting about 1 in 2,000 Caucasians. The major cause of morbidity is permanent lung damage resulting from ion transport abnormalities in airway epithelia that lead to mucus accumulation and bacterial colonization. CF is caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene that encodes a cyclic-AMP-regulated chloride channel. Cyclic-AMP-regulated chloride conductances are altered in airway epithelia from CF patients, suggesting that the functional expression of CFTR in the airways of CF patients may be a strategy for treatment. Transgenic mice with a disrupted cftr gene are appropriate for testing gene therapy protocols. Here we report the use of liposomes to deliver a CFTR expression plasmid to epithelia of the airway and to alveoli deep in the lung, leading to the correction of the ion conductance defects found in the trachea of transgenic (cf/cf) mice. These studies illustrate the feasibility of gene therapy for the pulmonary aspects of CF in humans.