Introduction: Purkinje Cell (PC) output displays a complex firing pattern consisting of high frequency sodium spikes and low frequency calcium spikes, and disruption in this firing behavior may contribute to cerebellar ataxia. Riluzole, neuroprotective agent, has been demonstrated to have neuroprotective effects in cerebellar ataxia. Here, the spectral analysis of PCs firing in control, 3-acety...

Understanding the role of voltage-gated sodium channels in nociception may provide important insights into pain mechanisms. Voltage-gated sodium channels are critically important for electrogenesis and nerve impulse conduction, and a target for important clinically relevant analgesics such as lidocaine. Furthermore, within the last decade studies have shown that certain sodium channel isoforms ...

In some central neurons, including cerebellar Purkinje neurons and subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons, TTX-sensitive sodium channels show unusual gating behavior whereby some channels open transiently during recovery from inactivation. This "resurgent" sodium current is effectively activated immediately after action potential-like waveforms. Earlier work using Purkinje neurons suggested that the...

BACKGROUND The general anesthetic ketamine is known to be an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blocker. Although ketamine also blocks voltage-gated sodium channels in a local anesthetic-like fashion, little information exists on the molecular pharmacology of this interaction. We measured the effects of ketamine on sodium channels. METHODS Wild-type and mutant (F1579A) recombinant rat skeletal mus...

Transmembrane ionic movements are thought to occur through special membrane areas or channels. Until recently, it has not been possible to study the properties of individual ionic channels, directly. We have used the extracellular patch clamp technique to resolve unitary sodium channels in enzyme-dissociated rabbit ventricular myocytes. Depolarizing voltage clamp steps elicited rectangular inwa...

Sodium channels play an important role in action potentials. Moreover, some evidences recently suggested that sodium channels were responsible for murine sinoatrial node pacemaking. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of sodium channels in pacemaking in embryonic cardiomyocytes in early development stage (EDS). Whole-cell patch-clamp technique was employed to record sodium current...

Background: Auxiliary  subunits regulate the voltage-gated sodium channels of DRG neurons. Results:  subunits are differentially expressed in subpopulations of DRG neurons and regulate Nav1.7 channels in an isoform-specific manor. Conclusions: Differential  subunit expression and isoform-specific regulation has important implications for the sodium currents of DRG neurons. Significance:  su...

Glutamatergic inputs from the subthalamic nucleus are suspected to provide a prominent source of excitation to globus pallidus (GP) neurons, despite their scarce number and mainly distal dendritic location. In this study we address the issue of whether dendritic sodium channels may facilitate the effect of excitatory inputs in GP. First, we examined the subcellular distribution of sodium channe...

Within the orchestra of cardiac ion channels, voltage–gated Na channels have a key function in the determination of the amplitude and slope of the action potential upstroke. Both are important in the control of impulse conduction velocity and maintenance of appropriate waves of excitation through the workingmyocardium. Themain (α-) subunit of the cardiac sodium channel is encoded by the SCN5A (...

We found mRNA for the three isoforms of the cyclic nucleotide-gated nonselective cation channel expressed in the mucosal layer of the rat intestine from the duodenum to the colon and in intestinal epithelial cell lines in culture. Because these channels are permeable to sodium and calcium and are stimulated by cGMP or cAMP, we measured 8-bromo-cGMP-stimulated sodium-mediated short-circuit curre...