ABSTRACT
Studies of the effect of temperature on ionic conductances have been performed for many years: initially, primarily on sodium and potassium currents and, more recently, on calcium currents. The possible involvement of complex multistage processes in the regulation of calcium channels may endow the currents with a temperature sensitivity somewhat different to that seen for sodium and potassium channels. Membrane potential changes in cells, due to the movement of calcium ions, have been studied since they were first observed by P. Fatt and B. L. Ginsborg in 1958. However, detailed electrophysiological analysis of mammalian neuronal calcium currents had to await the advent of the patch-clamp technique in 1981. The temperature dependence of calcium currents has been studied in detail in several nonneuronal or invertebrate preparations. In neuronal tissue, most reports suggest that raised intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate has no effect on calcium currents.
