Calcium-dependent inactivation controls cardiac L-type Ca2+ currents under β-adrenergic stimulation

The activity of L-type calcium channels is associated with the duration of the plateau phase of the cardiac action potential (AP) and it is controlled by voltage- and calcium-dependent inactivation (VDI and CDI, respectively). During β-adrenergic stimulation, an increase in the L-type current and parallel changes in VDI and CDI are observed during square pulses stimulation; however, how these modifications impact calcium currents during an AP remains controversial. Here, we examined the role of both inactivation processes on the L-type calcium current activity in newborn rat cardiomyocytes in control conditions and after stimulation with the β-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol. Our approach combines a self-AP clamp (sAP-Clamp) with the independent inhibition of VDI or CDI (by overexpressing Ca V β 2a or calmodulin mutants, respectively) to directly record the L-type calcium current during the cardiac AP. We find that at room temperature (20–23°C) and in the absence of β-adrenergic stimulation, the L-type current recapitulates the AP kinetics. Furthermore, under our experimental setting, the activity of the sodium–calcium exchanger (NCX) does not affect the shape of the AP. We find that hindering either VDI or CDI prolongs the L-type current and the AP in parallel, suggesting that both inactivation processes modulate the L-type current during the AP. In the presence of isoproterenol, wild-type and VDI-inhibited cardiomyocytes display mismatched L-type calcium current with respect to their AP. In contrast, CDI-impaired cells maintain L-type current with kinetics similar to its AP, demonstrating that calcium-dependent inactivation governs L-type current kinetics during β-adrenergic stimulation.