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Nitric oxide activates a potassium current in olfactory receptor neurons from Caudiverbera caudiverbera and Xenopus
O Schmachtenberg1, J Bacigalupo
1Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile.
Brain Research
|August 6, 1999
Abstract:
The putative role of nitric oxide (NO) in the physiology of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) is controversial. Here we report that pulses of NO caused an outward current in voltage-clamped isolated olfactory neurons. The I-V relation of this effect, its sensitivity to charybdotoxin and its dependence on external potassium suggest that NO activates a K(+)-conductance. As blockers of soluble guanylyl cyclases failed to affect the current, we conclude that NO opens K(+)-channels in a cGMP-independent manner.