FACILITATION OF L-TYPE CALCIUM CURRENT IN THALAMIC NEURONS. Paul J. Kammermeier and Stephen W. Jones. Departments of Neurosciences and Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106.
APStracts 4:230N, 1997.
ABSTRACT
We have studied facilitation of the L-type calcium current in neurons acutely isolated from the ventrobasal nucleus of the rat thalamus. Currents were recorded following pretreatment with 1 æM _-conotoxin GVIA and 5 æM _- conotoxin MVIIC, to better isolate L-current. Long, strong depolarizations induced slow tail currents at negative voltages, but did not affect currents at voltages where channels were strongly activated. The initial peak tail current was not measurably increased. The time course of recovery from facilitation paralleled the time course of the tail current, indicating that facilitation does not outlast channel closing. The kinase inhibitors staurosporine and H-7, and the phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid, had no significant effect on L-current facilitation compared to control, but facilitation was greater with H-7 than with okadaic acid. The GTP analogs GTP- ç-S and GDP-á-S did not affect facilitation. We conclude that L-current facilitation in thalamic neurons does not result from Ser/Thr phosphorylation, although phosphorylation may modulate facilitation. This form of facilitation differs kinetically and pharmacologically from facilitation induced by activation of G protein-coupled receptors. 

Received 30 April 1997; accepted in final form 4 September 1997.
APS Manuscript Number J344-7.
Article publication pending J. Neurophysiol.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1997 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 7 October 1997