“…As cytoskeletal microtubules appear to influence BK channel gating (Kitzmiller and Rosenberg, 1997), high pressure might conceivably act by the same route. A -AV of 105 ml mol-1 is also consistent with the dissociation of a ligand, perhaps an endogenous blocker (Methfessel and Boheim, 1982), or with conformational changes in proteins (Jonas and Jonas, 1994;Gross and Jaenicke, 1994;Weber, 1993;Van Eldik et al, 1989;Hasselbach and Stephan, 1987). Finally, as the mobility of ions in aqueous solution is not affected by the pressure used here (Brummer and Hills, 1961), and as the BK channel conductance is not affected by 900 atm (like alamethicin channels at 1000 atm; Brunner and Hall, 1983), there is no reason to suppose that the geometry of the BK channel pore is affected by pressure.…”