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Calcium channel in isolated outer hair cells of guinea pig cochlea
T Nakagawa1, S Kakehata, N Akaike
1Department of Neurophysiology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
Abstract:
The physiological and pharmacological properties of the Ca2+ channel in outer hair cells (OHCs) freshly isolated from guinea pig cochlea were investigated using a whole-cell patch-clamp technique. The Ca2+ current (ICa) was activated from a membrane potential of -20 mV and reached peak value around +20 mV in external solution containing 20 mM Ca2+ at a holding potential of -70 mV. The peak amplitude of ICa increased in a hyperbolic manner with increasing extracellular Ca2+ concentration. The ion selectively was Ba2+ much greater than Ca2+ greater than or equal to Sr2+. It was concluded that the Ca2+ channel in OHCs of guinea pig is of the L-type.