A kinetic analysis of the inward calcium current in 108CC15 neuroblastoma x glioma hybrid cells.

The kinetics of activation and inactivation of the inward calcium current (ICa) in morphologically undifferentiated and differentiated neuroblastoma X glioma hybrid cells of the clone 108CC15 were studied by the suction pipette technique for internal perfusion and voltage clamping. Potassium currents were eliminated by internal perfusion of the cells with a K+-free solution. Activation of ICa followed a sigmoidal time course and could reasonably be fitted by a m2 relation. The kinetics of ICa inactivation were studied by analyzing the current inactivation during long depolarizing steps and by measuring the peak ICa as a function of the length of a prepulse. Both methods gave comparable results indicating that the ICa inactivation cannot be fitted by a single exponential. The ICa inactivation was fitted by a biexponential function. Neither the activation nor the inactivation of ICa were changed after morphological cell differentiation induced by treatment with dibutyryl cyclic AMP.