Abstract
1. Mechanisms involved in the generation of nonselective cation currents (INS) by muscarinic agonists in the chromaffin cell were investigated by the perforated patch method. 2. Bath application of muscarine (0.1-30 microM) produced an inward INS with or without a transient outward current at -40 mV, whereas oxotremorine (0.06-60 microM) induced INS alone. Rectangular hyperbolas with EC50s of 2.01 and 0.21 microM were fitted to muscarine- and oxotremorine-induced INSS, respectively, and the maximal amplitude of the former was about 3.4 times larger than that of the latter. 3. In 36% of the cells exposed to Ca(2+)-free solution, muscarine INS was suppressed, being 53% of control 20 min after the perfusion, and in four cells that were incubated with Ca(2+)-free solution for 2 h or more, the INS averaged 44% of that induced subsequently in normal solution. In contrast, muscarine INS was enhanced by about 30% when A-23187 was added to normal solution. 4. W-7 and W-5, calmodulin-related agents, were almost equally potent in inhibiting muscarine INS, whereas compound 5, a potent inhibitor of calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaM kinase II), produced no evident inhibition. 5. HA1004, a weak kinase C inhibitor, induced a reversible suppression of muscarine INS with an IC50 of 163 microM, whereas H-8, another kinase inhibitor, produced an even small degree of inhibition. Administration of phorbol 12, 13-dibutyrate did not mimic muscarinic stimulation of NS channels; rather, it led to a progressive inhibition of INS and this inhibition was almost complete within 20 min. An inactive phorbol ester had no such effect. 6. The muscarinic antagonists, pirenzepine and AF-DX 116, shifted the dose-response curve for the muscarine INs to the right in a parallel manner. The KDS for pirenzepine and AF-DX 116 were estimated to be 13 nM (95% confidence interval, 11-16 nM) and 365 nM (283-470 nM), respectively.7. These results suggest that muscarine efficiently produces INS, probably through binding to the M4 subtype, that intracellular Ca2+ has a facilitating, but not an essential role in the generation of INs, and that neither CaM kinase II nor protein kinase C is involved.