Fig. 2

Influence of IL-6 on whole-cell LCC current in cultured CGNs. Depolarization voltage was set to −10 mV from a holding potential of −80 mV, and whole-cell inward current through the Ca channel was recorded in control and IL-6-exposed neurons. Perfusion of control or IL-6-exposed neurons with 10 μM of nifedipine, a blocker for LCCs, reduced the inward current through the Ca channel (a). The inward current after nifedipine action was non-L-type Ca-channel current (b1), and it was not significantly different between IL-6-pretreated and control neurons (b2). The inward current blocked by nifedipine was the LCC current (c1). The LCC current density was evidently lower in IL-6-exposed neurons than in controls (c2). **p < 0.01, compared with controls (n = 8). Voltage-dependent activation curves were obtained by the Boltzmann equation, g/g _max = 1 − {1 + exp[(V _m − V _1/2)/K]}⁻¹. The fitted values of V _1/2 were −25.05 ± 1.93 and −26.84 ± 1.64 mV, and the k (slope factor) was −5.84 ± 1.81 and −4.75 ± 1.30 in control and IL-6-treated neurons, respectively. No significant differences in the data were found between IL-6-treated and control neurons (c3, n = 6)