Quantitative aspects of L-type calcium currents

TL;DR

This review summarizes the quantitative properties, modeling approaches, and experimental data of L-type calcium currents across neurons and muscle cells, highlighting their roles in cellular processes and the variability in their activation and inactivation characteristics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of over 25 years of experimental and modeling data on L-type calcium currents, including parameter distributions and modeling components.

Findings

Half-activation potentials range from -50 mV to near 0 mV.

Inactivation is both voltage- and calcium-dependent, involving calcium-induced calcium release.

Limited reliable data on kinetics at physiological calcium levels.

Abstract

Calcium currents in neurons and muscle cells have been classified as being one of 5 types of which four, L, N, P/Q and R were said to be high threshold and one, T, was designated low threshold. This review focuses on quantitative aspects of L-type currents. L-type channels are now distinguished according to their structure as one of four main subtypes 1.1-1.4. L-type calcium currents play many fundamental roles in cellular dynamical processes including pacemaking in neurons and cardiac cells, the activation of transcription factors involved in synaptic plasticity and in immune cells. The half-activation potentials of L-type currents have been ascribed values as low as -50 mV and as high as near 0 mV. The inactivation of I_L has been found to be both voltage (VDI) and calcium-dependent (CDI) and the latter component may involve calcium-induced calcium release. CDI is often an important aspect of dynamical models of cell electrophysiology. We describe the basic components in modeling I_L including activation and both voltage and calcium dependent inactivation and the two main approaches to determining the current. We review, by means of tables of values from over 65 representative studies, the various details of the dynamical properties associated with I_L that have been found experimentally or employed in the last 25 years in deterministic modeling in various nervous system and cardiac cells. Distributions and statistics of several parameters related to activation and inactivation are obtained. There are few reliable experimental data on L-type calcium current kinetics for cells at physiological calcium ion concentrations. Neurons are divided approximately into two groups with experimental half-activation potentials.