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How Membrane Potential Controls Vascular Smooth Muscle Tone

The step from voltage to a mechanical property of a vessel: hyperpolarisation closes voltage-gated calcium channels, calcium falls, the muscle relaxes, the vessel widens. Needed before pulse pressure and aortic area can be read as downstream of a channel.

Questions this Concept answers

Why does opening potassium channels in a vascular smooth muscle cell widen the vessel?

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Vasodilation

Vasodilation is the widening of a blood vessel produced by relaxation of the smooth muscle in its wall. The page explains that smooth muscle tone is set by cytosolic calcium, which binds calmodulin a…