On Thu, 16 Mar 1995, Louis-Eric Trudeau wrote:
> I would like to hear from anybody who has experience with the reversibility of the block of calcium channels by lanthanum.
> Is it readily reversible?
> Are other heavy metal blockers more reversible?
> Thank you.
>>All the trivalent lanthanides will block voltage gated Ca++ channels.
I've used gadolinium and lanthanum on rat neurons in culture. So has my
wife. Neither were very reversible in my hands. In my patch clamp
experiments I could never hold a cell long enough to see complete
reversiblite. My wife can get recovery in 5-10 min. with both La+++ and
Gd+++ in Ca++-imaging studies using K+ depolarization with the same
cells. My paper is in press in J. Neurophy. while her paper is in
submission with Circ. Res. In the meantime check Biagi and Enyeart Am.J.
Physiol. 259:C515-C520, 1990.
Good Luck
Tom Cunningham
