Granule cells were dissociated from mouse cerebellum and grown in vitro. Currents through single Ca2+ channels were recorded from the cell body with the patch clamp technique. 2. Voltage steps to 0 mV produced brief channel openings with a mean open time of approximately 0.5 ms. The single-channel conductance measured from the amplitude of the single-channel current with 90 mM-Ba2+ in the patch electrode was 22 pS. 3. The probability of Ca2+ channel opening increased with test potentials more positive than -30 mV, with half-activation near 0 mV, and followed the Boltzmann relation for the activation of whole-cell Ca2+ current. 4. Voltage steps to potentials more positive than 0 mV produced more channel activity at the beginning than at the end of the voltage step. The average of the single-channel currents decayed to a non-zero level with a time course similar to that of the whole-cell Ca2+ current. 5. The amplitude as well as the decay of the mean current measured during a test pulse to 0 mV was reduced as the holding potential was made more positive than approximately -90 mV. The change in the open channel probability with holding potential followed the Boltzmann relation which described the inactivation of the whole-cell Ca2+ current. 6. Ca2+ channel activity persisted for over several minutes after excising the patch from the cell body when intracellular cyclic AMP was increased. After patch excision, the number of functional channels decreased to a level where only one channel at a time was active. Ca2+ channel openings appeared as either short bursts at the beginning of the voltage step or long bursts that lasted throughout the pulse. 7. Exposing the cell to the dihydropyridine agonist +(S)-202-791 markedly increased the fraction of sweeps with long openings and produced a non-decaying mean current that was approximately 5 times larger than control. In a fraction of the sweeps, however, long openings occurred more frequently at the beginning than at the end of the voltage step and these produced a decaying mean current. 8. Shifting the holding potential to more positive potentials in the presence of the dihydropyridine agonist preferentially reduced the number of brief openings while sparing the long openings. The amplitude of the mean current was similar to that obtained from the more negative holding potential and there was no change in the fraction of sweeps with long openings that occurred at the beginning of the voltage pulse.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
