Reuter 1967 reported that a voltage-dependent conductance, the calcium conductance of cardiac muscle, could be enhanced by stimulation of receptors for norepinephrine. Besides explaining a crucial element in the control of the heart by the sympathetic nervous system, Reuter's observation began a major branch of electrophysiology. Transmitter modulation of voltage-dependent ion channels by hormones and transmitters is now appreciated as an important control mechanism in heart, smooth muscle, neuroendocrine cells, and neurons. Virtually every type of voltage-dependent ion channel is subject to some kind of modulation.
Of all the examples of transmitter regulation of voltage-dependent channels, probably none has been more thoroughly studied than inhibition of calcium current in neurons, originally described by Dunlap and Fischbach 1981 in sensory neurons. A few years after their paper, the patch clamp technique made voltage-clamp recordings from neurons an everyday technique, and...
