Membrane currents induced by capsaicin (CAPS) in cultured sensory neurons from 1- to 2-day-old rats were studied. Responses to CAPS (lO^M) exceeding 1 nA at -50 mV were found in smaller, usually bipolar or tripolar neurons in which GABA (30 yuM) induced small or no response. Large, unipolar neurons, which exhibited large responses to GABA, were completely insensitive to CAPS (10//M). In contrast to GABA, responses to CAPS exhibited a slow rise and slow decay and a marked tachyphylaxis after repeated CAPS applications at high concentrations which made it difficult to study the concentration-response relationship. In partially run-down neurons, which exhibited quasi stable responses, the slope of the ascending phase was concentration-dependent with an apparent association rate constant Ki 9x104 [M-1s-1]. The time constant of the decay was 3.5 s, and was concentration-independent. However, in 5 neurones the EC50 measured from the first series of CAPS applications at increasing concentrations was 0.31 ±0.5ptA with a Hill coefficient 1.66±0.35. The responses to CAPS reversed at +10.4±2.5 mV suggesting that the current is carried nonselectively by monovalent cations and Ca2+. The channel conductance of CAPS-gated channels at -50 mV calculated from the mean membrane current and variance of the current noise in outside-out patches or measured directly was 28 pS (n=5). It is suggested that the CAPS-gated channels are either controlled by receptors with a very high affinity or that the channels are controlled by membrane-bound protein(s) which do not depend in their function on the supply of GTP or other intracellular metabolites.
Previous in vitro studies have shown that vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) isolated from the aortae of male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) proliferate more rapidly than those obtained from female SHR. Sex-dependent differences of cytosolic free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]j) were therefore studied in VSMC under basal conditions and after the stimulation by different concentrations of angiotensin II (Ang II). No significant difference in basal [Ca2+]i was found in VSMC from male and female SHR. Angiotensin II significantly increased |Ca2+], in VSMC from both genders. This [Ca2+]j rise elicited by 10'7 and 10~9 M Ang II was more pronounced in cells isolated from males than in those from females. This difference may be attributed to greater mobilisation of intracellular calcium stores in male VSMC. It can be concluded that the cytosolic free calcium response to angiotensin II is augmented in VSMC of male SHR, which also grow more rapidly in response to this peptide hormone.