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Neuronal modulation of calcium channel activity in cultured rat astrocytes
V Corvalan1, R Cole, J de Vellis
1Department of Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine 90024.
Abstract:
The patch-clamp technique was used to study whether cocultivation of neurons and astrocytes modulates the expression of calcium channel activity in astrocytes. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from rat brain astrocytes cocultured with rat embryonic neurons revealed two types of voltage-dependent inward currents carried by Ca2+ and blocked by either Cd2+ or Co2+ that otherwise were not detected in purified astrocytes. This expression of calcium channel activity in astrocytes was neuron dependent and was not observed when astrocytes were cocultured with purified oligodendrocytes.