Fig. 6: Effects of zinc on voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) current.
From: Zinc drives vasorelaxation by acting in sensory nerves, endothelium and smooth muscle
a, b Effects of zinc pyrithione (ZnPyr) on depolarization-dependent (80 mM KCl), calcium-induced contraction in rat isolated mesenteric arteries. a Representative trace. b Averaged data (%KPSS). n: arteries from separate rats. c–e VGCC current (charge carrier: Ba2+) recorded in mouse freshly isolated mesenteric artery SMCs using the conventional whole-cell configuration with/without zinc pyrithione (10 μM; ZnPyr). c Representative traces obtained using a test step (10 mV, inset) with/without ZnPyr. d, e Averaged traces of inward currents evoked by a voltage ramp protocol (upper inset, d) and the maximum current density obtained in these experiments (Imax, e) with/without 10 μM ZnPyr; **p < 0.01 two-tailed unpaired t test. f, g Effects of zinc delivered via the patch pipette on VGCC currents in mouse mesenteric artery SMCs. f Averaged current traces and g maximum current density (Imax) of VGCC currents recorded using ramp protocol with/without 1 or 10 nM free Zn2+ in the pipette solution. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, 1-way ANOVA [F(2,21) = 11.08, p = 0.0005) with Dunnett’s post-test. Error bars are SEM; horizontal error bars are for the average EC50. n/n: number of cells/number of mice.
