Abstract
1. Current- and voltage-clamp methods were used to evaluate the intracellular and ionic mechanisms involved in dopamine-induced slow depolarizations recorded from neurones of the LB cluster in the abdominal ganglion of Aplysia kurodai. 2. In voltage-clamped cells, dopamine induced a slow inward current that, over the range studied (-40 to -110 mV), decreased in amplitude with hyperpolarization of the cell, but failed to invert when the cell was hyperpolarized beyond the reversal potential for K+,(E)K. 3. Bathing the ganglion in 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) caused a significant increase in the dopamine response. 4. Most of the responses to dopamine were markedly augmented in Ca2+-free media, but were depressed in Na+-free media. 5. An intracellular injection of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) into the same cell type produced an inward current which, like the response to dopamine, diminished in amplitude with hyperpolarization of the cell. 6. Like the dopamine response, the cyclic AMP response increased in the presence of IBMX, was enhanced in Ca2+-free media, was depressed in Na+-free media, and was unaffected by changes in external potassium. 7. In a few cells, although the cyclic AMP-induced responses disappeared in Na+-free media, the dopamine-induced slow inward current responses did not. However, these Na+-free resistant responses disappeared completely in Na+- and Ca2+-free media. 8. It was concluded that most of the dopamine-induced inward current responses were produced by an increase in permeability, mainly to Na+, triggered by a receptor-controlled increase in intracellular cyclic AMP.