{"doi":"10.5772/intechopen.1008214","title":"BK Channels, Cholesterol, and Cerebral Arteries","abstract":"Potassium homeostasis is essential for a variety of physiological functions, many of which are critically dependent on proper function and expression of potassium channels. Though only a small portion of the large potassium channel family, voltage- and calcium-gated potassium channels of large conductance (MaxiK, BK) are ubiquitously expressed in the human body, and contribute to potassium homeostasis. Of particular interest, BK channels are major regulators of cerebral artery smooth muscle tone and diameter. BK-mediated currents are inhibited by many endogenous ligands including cholesterol, a major component of mammalian cell membranes and regulator of membrane protein function. Upon dietary intake of cholesterol-rich foods, cholesterol levels in cerebrovascular smooth muscle are increased. While cholesterol causes plaque formation in the lining of many artery types throughout the human body, cerebral arteries are rather resilient to this process, which is likely due to active uptake of cholesterol into the vascular smooth muscle layer. Upon cholesterol accumulation in cerebrovascular smooth muscle cells, BK channel regulation of myogenic tone is altered, and can exacerbate cholesterol-driven pathologies. In this chapter, we review BK channels, cholesterol interactions with these channels, and the influence of such interactions on cerebral artery function.","journal":"Physiology","year":2025,"id":562063,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9566,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":977479,"name":"Christy L. Dyer","orcid":"0009-0005-2376-6855","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":382817,"name":"Alex M. Dopico","orcid":"0000-0003-4210-0096","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":382816,"name":"Anna N. Bukiya","orcid":"0000-0003-0655-2319","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1464507,"name":"Elizabeth P. Schneider","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":242,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:56:01.883848Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}