Phospholamban deficiency alters inactivation kinetics of l-type ca2+ channels in mouse ventricular myocytes. Masaki, Hiroya, Yoji Sato, Wusheng Luo, Evangelia G. Kranias, and Atsuko Yatani. Department of Pharmacology and Cell Biophysics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267
APStracts 3:0341H, 1996.
Entry of Ca2+ through voltage-dependent L-type Ca2+ channel (CaCh) is critical for contraction in cardiac cells. In recent studies, cells from the PLB knockout (PLB-KO) mouse hearts showed significantly increased basal contractility with enhanced sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+-uptake. To test whether these effects of PLB ablation were associated with alterations of CaCh function, we compared the properties of Ca2+ channel currents (ICa) in ventricular myocytes isolated from wild-type (WT) and PLB-KO mouse hearts. CaCh from mouse myocytes exhibited voltage-dependent gating and sensitivity to dihydropyridine drugs, similar to other mammalian species, and these properties were not altered by PLB ablation. ICa from both WT and PLB-KO cells revealed two (fast and slow) components of inactivation kinetics. However, the proportion of the faster component was significantly larger in PLB-KO cells. Ryanodine (10 mM) reduced the rate of inactivation of ICa for both WT and PLB-KO cells, but the reduction was more prominent in PLB-KO cells compared with WT cells. In contrast, the inactivation in Ba2+ solution could be fitted by a single exponential similar to the slower component in Ca2+, and this was not altered in PLB-KO cells. The increase in the fast Ca2+ -dependent inactivation component in PLB-KO cells supports the hypothesis that Ca2+ released from the SR regulates Ca2+ channel inactivation by affecting the levels of Ca2+ near the channel and suggests that this may be an important compensatory mechanism in the hyperdynamic PLB-KO heart.

Received 26 July 1996; accepted in final form 4 August 1996.
APS Manuscript Number H673-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Heart Circ. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 29 August 1996