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Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77550, U.S.A.

1. Inactivation of the Ca channels has been examined in isolated nerve cell bodies of Helix aspersa using the suction pipette method for voltage clamp and internal perfusion.

2. Satisfactory suppression of outward currents was essential. This was achieved over most of the voltage range by substitution of Cs ion for K ion and by the use of TEA intra- and extracellularly and 4-AP extracellularly. A small time- and voltage-dependent non-specific current remained at potentials above +60 mV.

3. In these solutions, Ca current approaches E_Ca but cannot be detected in the outward direction. The Ca channel appears to be impermeable to Cs and Tris ions.

4. Inactivation of Ca currents occurs as a bi-exponential process. The faster rate is 10-20 times the slower rate and is about one twentieth the rate of activation. The development of inactivation during a single voltage-clamp step and the onset of inactivation produced by prepulses followed after brief intervals by a test pulse, have roughly similar time courses.

5. The rates of inactivation increase monotonically at potentials more positive than about -25 mV. The amount of steady-state inactivation increases with membrane depolarizations to potentials of about +50 mV. At more positive potentials, steady-state inactivation is reduced.

6. Intracellular EGTA slows the faster rate of inactivation of I_Ca and reduces the amount of steady-state inactivation measured with a standard two pulse protocol. The effect is specifically related to Ca chelation and hydrogen ions are not involved. This component of inactivation is referred to as Ca current-dependent inactivation and is consistent with observations that increased Ca_i inactivates the Ca channel. The process does not depend upon current flow alone since Ba currents of comparable or greater magnitude have smaller initial rates of inactivation. Furthermore, application of Ba ion intracellularly in large concentrations has no effect on steady-state inactivation.

7. The bi-exponential inactivation process that persists in the presence of EGTA_i is similar to that occurring when extracellular Ba ion carries current through the Ca channel. Steady-state inactivation also persists and is similar in the two cases. Therefore it is concluded that inactivation is voltage-dependent as well as Ca current-dependent.

8. Diffusion models that included reasonable values for the effect of binding on diffusion, even when combined with declining influxes, did not account for this `mixed' form of calcium- and voltage-dependent inactivation. A compartmental model in which the particular kinetic model of voltage-dependent inactivation was not critical described the Ca current-dependent inactivation.

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