potassium and chloride). Many of these channels were found to be remarkably resistant to alcohol action, even at very high concentrations [6,7]. In contrast, the BK calcium- and voltage-activated potassium channel was found to be very responsive to alcohol, generally (but not exclusively [8]), exhibiting potentiated channel activity, resulting from reduced time spent in the closed state. The increased probability of the BK channel adopting an open conformation is observed in brain [9,10], in reconstituted lipid bilayers [11] and in oocytes and HEK 293 cells transfected with mouse, rat and human channels. Potentiation, as well as BK inhibition in arterial smooth muscle [12], is elicited by alcohol concentrations as low as 10 mM (legal intoxication is ~20 mM).
