Fig. 4: Kcnk2^−/− influences protein expression levels involved in cytoskeletal regulation and cell morphology.

a Volcano Plot of differentially regulated proteins of Kcnk2^−/− versus WT MBMECs, blue = p < 0.05, magenta = p < 0.05 and log2 fold change (FC) > 2 (N = 5). b Tree map of enriched GO-Terms of differentially expressed proteins in naïve Kcnk2^−/− MBMECs versus WT MBMECs. GO-Terms were summarized by REVIGO analysis⁸². c Network analysis of differentially regulated pathways, proteins and respective interaction partners in naïve Kcnk2^−/− MBMECs versus WT MBMECs. Red circles indicate upregulation, blue circles downregulation in Kcnk2^−/− MBMECs. Yellow borders indicate an ion-dependency of respective proteins. Interaction of proteins are shown according to STRING analysis⁷⁸. Biological processes are annotated within the respective circles. d Representative AFM (atomic force microscopy) images of WT and Kcnk2^−/− MBMECs. Color code depicts height of observed structures (0−500 nm), scale bars represent 5 µm. e Calculations of the fibrosity index from AFM images in (d) of WT (white, black dots) and Kcnk2^−/− (gray, gray cubes) MBMECs (N = 3). f AFM-based measurements of cortical stiffness of WT (white, black dots) and Kcnk2^−/− (gray, gray cubes) MBMECs (N = 4, n = 45–59; each data point represents the mean value of 6 force-distance curves of one MBMEC cell). N and n representing the number of individual MBMEC preparations and individual MBMEC cells, respectively. Exact N and n-numbers for each condition are listed in the Source Data file. All data are shown as mean +/- SEM. Statistical analysis using (a) two-tailed student’s t-test + Benjamini-Hochberg correction for multiple testing and (e, f) 1-way ANOVA + Bonferroni correction with *p < 0.05 and ***p < 0.001. Exact p-values are listed in the Source Data file.