scholarly journals A fast transient outward current in the rat sympathetic neurone studied under voltage-clamp conditions.

1985 ◽  
Vol 358 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
O Belluzzi ◽  
O Sacchi ◽  
E Wanke
2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 2589-2603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel G. Wüstenberg ◽  
Milena Boytcheva ◽  
Bernd Grünewald ◽  
John H. Byrne ◽  
Randolf Menzel ◽  
...  

The mushroom body of the insect brain is an important locus for olfactory information processing and associative learning. The present study investigated the biophysical properties of Kenyon cells, which form the mushroom body. Current- and voltage-clamp analyses were performed on cultured Kenyon cells from honeybees. Current-clamp analyses indicated that Kenyon cells did not spike spontaneously in vitro. However, spikes could be elicited by current injection in approximately 85% of the cells. Of the cells that produced spikes during a 1-s depolarizing current pulse, approximately 60% exhibited repetitive spiking, whereas the remaining approximately 40% fired a single spike. Cells that spiked repetitively showed little frequency adaptation. However, spikes consistently became broader and smaller during repetitive activity. Voltage-clamp analyses characterized a fast transient Na+ current ( INa), a delayed rectifier K+ current ( IK,V), and a fast transient K+ current ( IK,A). Using the neurosimulator SNNAP, a Hodgkin–Huxley-type model was developed and used to investigate the roles of the different currents during spiking. The model led to the prediction of a slow transient outward current ( IK,ST) that was subsequently identified by reevaluating the voltage-clamp data. Simulations indicated that the primary currents that underlie spiking are INa and IK,V, whereas IK,A and IK,ST primarily determined the responsiveness of the model to stimuli such as constant or oscillatory injections of current.


1971 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erwin Neher

Voltage clamp currents from medium sized ganglion cells of Helix pomatia have a fast transient outward current component in addition to the usually observed inward and outward currents. This component is inactivated at normal resting potential. The current, which is carried by K+ ions, may surpass leakage currents by a factor of 100 after inactivation has been removed by hyperpolarizing conditioning pulses. Its kinetics are similar to those of the inward current, except that it has a longer time constant of inactivation. It has a threshold close to resting potential. This additional component is also present in giant cells, where however, it is less prominent. Pacemaker activity is controlled by this current. It was found that inward currents have a slow inactivating process in addition to a fast, Hodgkin-Huxley type inactivation. The time constants of the slow process are similar to those of slow outward current inactivation.


1985 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1038-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. L. Zbicz ◽  
F. F. Weight

Membrane currents activated by step changes in membrane potential were studied in hippocampal pyramidal neurons of region CA3 using the single microelectrode voltage-clamp technique. The transient outward current activated by depolarizing steps appeared to be composed of two transient currents that could be distinguished by differences in voltage sensitivity, time course, and pharmacological sensitivity. The more slowly decaying current was activated by voltage steps positive to -60 mV and declined exponentially with a time constant between 200 and 400 ms. This current inactivated as the holding potential was made more positive over the range of -75 to -45 mV and was 50% inactivated near -60 mV. The more slowly decaying transient current was selectively blocked by 0.5 mM 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) but not by 5-10 mM tetraethylammonium (TEA) or 2-5 mM Mn2+. The second transient current had a much faster time course than the 4-AP-sensitive current, having a duration of 5-20 ms. This very fast transient current was observed during potential steps positive to -45 mV. The fast transient current was inactivated when the holding potential was made positive to -45 mV. The amplitude of the fast transient current was greatly reduced by the application of 4 mM Mn2+ or Ca2+-free artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The fast transient current appeared to be unaffected by 0.5 mM 4-AP but was greatly reduced by 10 mM TEA. These results suggest that the transient outward current observed during depolarizing steps is composed of at least two distinct transient currents. The more slowly decaying current resembles the A-current originally described in molluscan neurons (9, 32, 42) in voltage sensitivity, time course, and pharmacological sensitivity. The faster transient current resembles a fast, Ca2+-dependent transient current previously observed in bull-frog sympathetic neurons (5, 27).


2004 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 807-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rüschenschmidt ◽  
R. Köhling ◽  
M. Schwarz ◽  
H. Straub ◽  
A. Gorji ◽  
...  

1986 ◽  
Vol 250 (2) ◽  
pp. H325-H329 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Nathan

Previous investigations employing multicellular nodal preparations (i.e., mixtures of dominant and subsidiary pacemaker cells) have suggested that the fast transient inward sodium current (iNa) either is not present in dominant pacemaker cells or is present but inactivated at the depolarized take-off potentials that these cells exhibit. In the present study, this question was resolved by voltage clamp analysis of single pacemaker cells isolated from the sinoatrial node and maintained in vitro for 1-3 days. Two types of cells, each with a different morphology, exhibited two modes of electrophysiological behavior. Type I cells (presumably dominant pacemakers) displayed only a tetrodotoxin (TTX)-resistant (but cadmium-sensitive) slow inward current, whereas type II cells (presumably subsidiary pacemakers) exhibited two components of inward current, a TTX-sensitive, fast transient inward current and a TTX-resistant (but cadmium-sensitive) slow inward current. Three other voltage-gated currents, 1) a slowly developing inward current activated by hyperpolarization (if, ih, delta ip), 2) a transient outward current activated by strong depolarization (ito, iA), and 3) a delayed outward current, were recorded in both types of pacemaker cells.


2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 1253-1263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fivos Vogalis ◽  
Kirk Hillsley ◽  
Terence K. Smith

The aim of this study was to perform a patch-clamp analysis of myenteric neurons from the guinea pig proximal colon. Neurons were enzymatically dispersed, cultured for 2–7 days, and recorded from using whole cell patch clamp. The majority of cells fired phasically, whereas about one-quarter of the neurons fired in a tonic manner. Neurons were divided into three types based on the currents activated. The majority of tonically firing neurons lacked an A-type current, but generated a large fast transient outward current that was associated with the rapid repolarizing phase of an action potential. The fast transient outward current was dependent on calcium entry and was blocked by tetraethylammonium. Cells that expressed both an A-type current and a fast transient outward current were mostly phasic. Depolarization of these cells to suprathreshold potentials from less than −60 mV failed to trigger action potentials, or action potentials were only triggered after a delay of >50 ms. However, depolarizations from more positive potentials triggered action potentials with minimal latency. Neurons that expressed neither the A-type current or the fast transient outward current were all phasic. Sixteen percent of neurons were similar to AH/type II neurons in that they generated a prolonged afterhyperpolarization following an action potential. The current underlying the prolonged afterhyperpolarization showed weak inward rectification and had a reversal potential near the potassium equilibrium potential. Thus cultured isolated myenteric neurons of the guinea pig proximal colon retain many of the diverse properties of intact neurons. This preparation is suitable for further biophysical and molecular characterization of channels expressed in colonic myenteric neurons.


1980 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1700-1724 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Schwindt ◽  
W. E. Crill

1. Membrane currents of normal and TEA-injected cat lumbar motoneurons were investigated using the technique of somatic voltage clamp. 2. The current-voltage (I-V) relation of healthy motoneurons contains a region of negative slope conductance caused by a persistent inward current component (Ii). In the most striking examples, Ii is net inward at some potentials between 10 and 30 mV positive to resting potential. 3. Near its activation threshold (greater than or equal to 10 mV positive to rest), Ii does not decrement during prolonged voltage steps and, in most cells, activates very slowly. Ii amplitude increases and time to peak Ii decreases with further small increments of depolarization, and Ii decrements during sustained voltage steps. Maximum Ii amplitude occurs 20--30 mV positive to rest in most cells. Ii is not visible at sufficiently large depolarizations. 4. Ii appears to be mixed with potassium current components at nearly every potential where it is visible. These include a slow outward current first activated near Ii activation threshold, a fast outward current additonally activated at larger depolarizing potentials, and a fast, transient outward current that obscures the true onset of Ii at nearly every potential. 5. Ii is not carried by sodium entering via the fast, transient channels and is present after pharmacological blockage of sodium currents. It is proposed that Ii is predominantly carried by calcium ions. 6. The presence of inward tail currents after repolarization from potentials that activate a steady outward current suggest that Ii remains present but hidden at large depolarizations. Ii inactivation was further investigated in TEA-injected motoneurons since Ii and the tail currents are more prominent in these cells. 7. Conventional recordings from TEA-injected motoneurons suggest that a prolonged, postspike plateau potential is maintained by a persistent inward current. Voltage-clamp data can account for the principal features of the plateau potential. 8. Voltage-clamp results in TEA-injected motoneurons suggest that Ii is subject to little or no inactivation at potentials less than or equal to 30 mV positive to rest and to partial inactivation, at most, at higher potentials during steps lasting less than or equal to 100 ms. The apparent decay of Ii during sustained depolarization is caused by the development of a larger outward current. 9. Ii is similar in several ways to a persistent calcium current observed in some molluscan neurons. Theoretical and experimental results suggest that Ii is generated predominantly in a local region under voltage control and that the observed membrane currents govern somatic membrane potential and cell behavior.


1995 ◽  
Vol 268 (6) ◽  
pp. H2358-H2365 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. James ◽  
T. Okada ◽  
M. Horie

A voltage-dependent transient outward current (I(to)) was observed in cells cultured from human pulmonary artery smooth muscle when K+, but not Cs+, was the dominant cation in the pipette solution. In 30% of cells investigated using the Cs+ pipette solution, a tetrodotoxin-sensitive inward current (I(in)) dependent on extracellular Na+ was evoked from depolarizations positive to -30 mV.Iin showed voltage-dependent inactivation with a membrane potential at 50% of the evoked current (V50%) of -75.53 +/- 0.81 mV and slope factor potential (Vs) of -10.73 +/- 0.01 mV. In the presence of 1 microM tetrodotoxin, I(to) was rapidly evoked by depolarizations positive to -40 mV and decayed with a single exponential time course (tau = 9.9 +/- 1.1 ms, pulse potential = +50 mV). I(to) also showed voltage-dependent inactivation with a V50% of -70.9 +/- 2.63 mV and Vs of -7.7 +/- 0.03 mV. I(to) was inhibited concentration dependently by the K+ channel blocker, 4-aminopyridine (4-AP), with a concentration of 4-AP at which I(to) was reduced to 50% of control of 36.5 +/- 2.8 microM. These cells possess voltage-dependent currents characteristic of the K(+)-selective fast transient outward and Na(+)-selective inward currents of smooth muscle cells.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document