“…These K Ca channels are classified into three subfamilies based on their biophysical and pharmacological properties, and molecular substrates: K Ca 1.1, large-conductance or BK channels; K Ca 3.1, intermediate-conductance or IK channels; and K Ca 2.1 to K Ca 2.3, small-conductance or SK channels (Wei et al, 2005). In odontoblasts and osteoblasts, which are hard tissue-forming cells similar to cementoblasts, plasma membrane signal transduction plays an important role in sensory reception (Shibukawa et al, 2015), neural communication (Moreau et al, 1996;Obata et al, 2007;Ma et al, 2013;Shibukawa et al, 2015;Nishiyama et al, 2016;Sato et al, 2018), and hard tissue formation (Ravesloot et al, 1990;Henney et al, 2009;Tsumura et al, 2010Tsumura et al, , 2012Sato et al, 2013;Kimura et al, 2016;Kojima et al, 2017). To date, expression of the following diverse K + channels has been observed in osteoblasts: voltagegated K + channels, inward-rectifier K + channels, ATP-sensitive K + channels, K Ca channels (BK, IK, and SK channels;Henney et al, 2009), and two-pore-domain K + channels (e.g., Kito et al, 2020).…”