KCNQ1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Consistent with the electrophysiological data, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis revealed high expression of the KCNMA1 transcript coding for the BK channels (Figure 1E), while other potassium channels such as KCNQ1, KCNE2 and KCNE3 were poorly expressed in HCC cells.