PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Régis C. Lambert
AU  - Yves Maulet
AU  - Jérôme Mouton
AU  - Ruth Beattie
AU  - Steve Volsen
AU  - Michel De Waard
AU  - Anne Feltz
TI  - T-Type Ca<sup>2+</sup> Current Properties Are Not Modified by Ca<sup>2+</sup> Channel β Subunit Depletion in Nodosus Ganglion Neurons
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-17-06621.1997
DP  - 1997 Sep 01
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 6621--6628
VI  - 17
IP  - 17
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/17/17/6621.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/17/17/6621.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.1997 Sep 01; 17
AB  - At the molecular level, our knowledge of the low voltage-activated Ca2+ channel (T-type) has made little progress. Using an antisense strategy, we investigated the possibility that the T-type channels have a structure similar to high voltage-activated Ca2+ channels. It is assumed that high voltage-activated channels are made of at least three components: a pore forming α1 subunit combined with a cytoplasmic modulatory β subunit and a primarily extracellular α2δ subunit. We have examined the effect of transfecting cranial primary sensory neurons with generic anti-β antisense oligonucleotides. We show that in this cell type, blocking expression of all known β gene products does not affect T-type current, although it greatly decreases the current amplitude of high voltage-activated channels and modifies their voltage dependence. This suggests that β subunits are likely not constitutive of T-type Ca2+ channels in this cell type.